Premier

Carlisle Grounds
19 Sep 2014

Hanlon knocks it in
pic Michael Tierney

Ten-man St Patricks Athletic outplayed Bray throughout the second half and ran out relatively easy winners after an early scare.

In a first period replete with controversy, the home side went ahead thirteen minutes in, courtesy of Ken Oman, whose clumsy challenge on Dave Cassidy earned him an early shower, and Bray a penalty which Jake Kelly duly dispatched.

Pats played the rest of the half at a furious pace, though their defence looked rattled at times, and they might have conceded further penalties before the break.

Their equaliser came from a good weaving run by Chris Forrester, whose 25m shot hit the woodwork and spun down and out to be headed over by Christy Fagan before the officials ruled that the original shot had crossed the goal-line.

Worse was to follow early in the second half, as the Saints scored twice in as many minutes, with a suspicion of defensive errors contributing to both Keith Fahey's and Conan Byrne's strikes.

And eight minutes later it was 4-1, Byrne doubling his tally with a shot from the right hand sideline that deceived the unfortunate Stephen McGuinness.

With ten minutes of normal time to go, Adam Hanlon gave the Seagulls a lifeline with a header from a Graham Kelly corner.

But that was as good as it got for the home side, and after McGuinness denied Byrne in stoppage time, the Saints recorded their sixth straight win in all competitions.

It had all started so very well for Bray, too: a double chance from Cassidy in the third minute, the first a through ball for Hanlon which Brendan Clarke did well to reach and the second a rocket that found the off-side Joe Gorman in its path.

Two minutes later, Hanlon robbed a poor ball by Sean Hoare and was fouled by Oman, Jake Kelly firing in a great free from 23m on the right which found the alert Clarke.

The visitors responded with Forrester flicking a dink through with his heel after a nice display of passing, but McGuinness was up for it.

Soon after, Hoare lost his cross behind the goal, and from the keeper's clearance Hanlon fed head-high for Issy Akinade who nodded down for Cassidy in a better position. The last was brought down by Oman, and Referee Paul Tuite reached straight for his back pocket.

Liam Buckley pulled Killian Brennan back into the defensive hole, and at times during the next half-hour the Saints' back four looked rattled.

Minutes later, Jake Kelly collected a Gorman ball and delivered a pinpoint cross to Akinade's head, but the winger nodded directly to the Pats keeper.

He was brought down on the edge of the area two minutes after that, but Tuite wasn't convinced.

Mid-way through the half, Byrne won a corner for the visitors and in a scramble following his flag-kick, Brennan headed down and the Pats players seemed certain there were grounds for a penalty: Tuite, however, wasn't.

Just before the half-hour, Cassidy was off-target from a cutback after Akinade had beaten the off-side trap.

But as the break neared, Adam Mitchell made a couple of errors that needed tidying up, and then came Forrester's shot, Tuite initialling signalling a goal-kick after Fagan's miss, but Assistant Referee Michelle O'Neill indicated that a goal had been scored and Tuite, having discussed it with her, agreed.

In the time remaining, Jake Kelly tried an ambitious lob that Clarke managed to claim, while Hoare made an important block when Graham Kelly had made a fine run with the ball.

In the final minute of the half, the Bray players felt there had been a Saints handball incident in the area, but instead Niall Cooney was cautioned for a foul on Forrester.

When play resumed, once again Hanlon had an early strike but shot straight at Clarke.

From a Brennan free a few minutes later, partially cleared by Joe Gorman, the visitors regained possession and Fahey's shot, which initially looked fairly harmless, slowly curled just inside McGuinness's far post.

Clarke waits for an Akinade header

Bray came close to restoring equality almost immediately, but Akinade's header from a Graham Kelly corner was eventually smothered by Clarke.

And from the keeper's clearance, Fahey cut the ball back into Byrne's path and the midfielder slotted home past the disconsolate Bray minder.

It could have been worse even sooner than it was, as Byrne fed a good free that Fahey got a brow to, but McGuinness claimed.

Bray couldn't make a pair of corners count, and nor could Brennan for the visitors. But Byrne managed to fire a bullet cross from the right sideline that drifted into the far corner of the net.

Once more, Bray threatened to respond within seconds, Cassidy hitting the post, and eventually sending a corner kick which was headed back to him to cross again, and Kelly with a swivelling shot on the waist-high ball almost beat Clarke: almost, but not quite.

And two minutes later, an Akinade lob had the Saints keeper beaten, but Brennan somehow got his head low enough on the line to clear.

With twenty minutes to go, a Cassidy corner led to a free which Clarke could only punch away.

Just as it began to seem that the Saints were content to defend their margin for the ten minutes that were left, a Graham Kelly flag-kick fell to Hanlon, who was stooping to free himself from a defender and yet managed to steer his header from the back post to the near one.

But there was little more in the Seagulls to trouble the visitors.

Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Bray Wanderers: 32 Stephen McGuinness; 12 Niall Cooney, 2 David Webster (c), 5 Adam Mitchell, 4 Joe Gorman; 11 Adam Hanlon, 16 Dean Zambra, 24 Graham Kelly, 10 Jake Kelly; 8 David Cassidy; 9 Ismahil Akinade
Subs: 1 Gavin Sheridan (gk), 7 Shane O'Neill (for Cassidy 77), 15 Shane O'Connor, 17 Michael Brown, 18 Ryan Swan, 19 David Scully (for Akinade 70), 23 Gareth McDonagh
St Patricks Athletic: 1 Brendan Clarke; 2 Gerard O'Brien (c), 20 Sean Hoare, 5 Kenneth Oman, 21 Aaron Greene; 6 Greg Bolger; 7 Conan Byrne, 8 Keith Fahey, 11 Killian Brennan, 17 Christopher Forrester; 9 Christopher Fagan
Subs: 4 Derek Foran, 10 Mark Quigley (for Fagan 70), 12 Lorcan Fitzgerald (for Forrester 91), 14 James Chambers (for Fahey 78), 19 Sam Verdon, 22 Conor McCormack, 25 Patrick Jennings (gk)
Referee: Paul Tuite