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Carlisle Grounds
20 Jul 2014

Maloney finds space to pass to Zambra
pic Michael Tierney

The Seagulls broke their recent spell of defeats with a deserved victory over Manchester United in the Carlisle Grounds.

Alan Mathews will not be overestimating their achievement against Warren Joyce's Under-19s, but considering they featured no fewer than six current or former under-age internationals, representing five countries, it's not to be sniffed at.

In front of a capacity crowd at a sundrenched football venue, it was ideal mid-summer fare for the very strongly family-based fans, most, it must be said, wearing the English side's colours in one form or other.

Both sides gave the crowd a good show, especially in the first half, with Bray the better in that period, and both keepers pretty busy.

Issy Akinade tormented United left-back Callum Evans, and rarely failed to get his crosses into the area. It was one of those that found Jake Kelly late in the half, well past the far post, and the Bray man tucked his shot just inside Joel Castro Pereira's righthand post.

Winger Bebé, a former Portuguese Under-21 cap, had the best of United's chances before the break, forcing at least one fine save from Stephen McGuinness.

An almost complete change of team for the visitors in the second period provided somewhat less sparkle, but towards the end of the encounter they were dominating the play, and were unlucky not to find the target, with Davide Petrucci and Saidy Janko coming closest.

An early Akinade cross found Philly Hughes in a threatening position, but his goal-bound header was flicked away for a corner by Ryan McConnell, and when the visitors broke away following the flag-kick it took the industrious Adam Mitchell three attempts to dispossess Bebé in the area.

Four minutes in, another Akinade feed for Hughes was headed high, and a counter-attack found Stephen McGuinness ready to claim a dangerous Bebé cross.

Joe Gorman was the next in action to block an effort by the lively United winger, and just inside the quarter hour a narrow-angle shot by Joshua Harrop brought a fine save from the Bray keeper.

Jake Kelly shot over from Akinade's next significant cut-back, and minutes later Bebé did all the hard work himself to create a narrow opening on the right, but couldn't keep his shot on target.

On the half hour, Kelly had another shot go astray, before Ryan Coombes delivered a searching free from near the half-way line, forcing Castro Pereira to come forward to make a good clean take.

Then Harrop brought an agile tip from McGuinness with a well-directed shot, before Kelly's goal from Akinade's rolled cross put the home side ahead.

Kelly worked hard on a second within a minute, but his strong break-away run following a Sean Goss flag-kick ended with a poor cross, and Mitchell was in action again just before the break, defending well after another corner by the United midfielder.

There was some brief confusion as the second half began, when it became apparent that the second team fielded by the visitors didn't correspond with the team-sheets issued before thegame, but the correct line-out was soon established, and it was Petrucci who put striker Angelo Henriquez through five minutes in, but Shane Redmond gathered as the off-side flag rose.

Petrucci himself had a go just inside the hour, but shot wide, and in truth the second 45 minutes was a less conmpelling spectacle than the first had been.

Redmond claimed a Janko cross, and seemed minutes after that to pick up a clear backpass – but Referee Rob Harvey was unconcerned, and must have seen a Manchester touch befoire the keeper's intervention.

Janko broke past the Bray defence with less than a quarter of an hour to go, but off-side and with Redmond blocking in any case.

Three minutes later, an apparently innocuous Janko cross seem to be flying over when it took a wicked dip, and Redmond had to be quick to touch it away.

Bray substitute Dave Cassidy went narrowly wide inside the final ten minutes, and United second keeper Kieran O'Hara was forced to head away outside his area when a long ball was backheaded a little too close to him.

Andreas Pereira shot left of target after a nice piece of trickery in front of the Seagulls' back four, and the visitors finished strongly with a brace of corners when Redmond couldn't keep Henriquez' shot in play, but Pereira's flag-kicks managed to miss his own attack, and his final-minute free deep in Bray's left-hand corner fared little better.

Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Bray Wanderers: 32 Stephen McGuinness; 12 Niall Cooney, 5 Adam Mitchell, 4 Joe Gorman, 22 Robert Maloney; 9 Ismahil Akinade, 16 Dean Zambra (c), 21 Gary Curran, 10 Jake Kelly; 13 Ryan Coombes; 20 Philip Hughes
Subs: 1 Shane Redmond (for McGuinness H/T), 7 Sean Noble (for Scully 58 inj), 8 David Cassidy (for Curran H/T), 17 Michael Browne, 18 Ciarán Byrne (for Akinade 61), 19 David Scully (for Mitchell H/T), 24 Graham Kelly (for J Kelly H/T)
Manchester United:
First Half 1 Joel Castro Pereira; 2 Donald Love, 4 Ryan McConnell, 5 Thomas Thorpe (c), 3 Callum Evans; 11 Bebé (Tiago Manuel Dias Correia), 6 Ben Pearson, 8 Sean Goss, 7 Joshua Harrop; 9 Ashley Fletcher, 10 Matthew Willock
Second Half 13 Kieran O'Hara; 22 Saidy Janko, 19 Patrick McNair, 5 Thomas Thorpe (c), 15 Evilly Varera; 16 James Wilson, 14 Joe Rothwell, 18 Davide Petrucci, 20 Andreas Pereira, 17 Tom Lawrence; 12 Angelo Henriquez
Referee: Rob Harvey