Premier

Carlisle Grounds
14 Oct 2016

If Wanderers can maintain their current position over the final brace of matches, it will be their best final standing since 2008.

A touch of winter to remind us what soccer was like in that season lifted in time for kick-off, though it returned either side of the break to ensure the surface was slippy for play.

A lack of anticipation on Peter Cherrie's part left him flapping ineffectually when Jamie McGrath got a head to Conan Byrne's cross from the right to put the Saints ahead less than a quarter of an hour in.

The teams were fairly evenly matched throughout, and it was probably just that at about the same point in the second half Bray levelled matters in somewhat similar fashion, though from a corner.

But there was little determination evident in the visitors' play, and despite going ahead they did little enough thereafter to earn the points they would need to gain European football next year, though that was probably beyond them in practical terms already.

And a Kevin Lynch corner led to Bray's winner less than a quarter of an hour later, Alan McNally heading home after his first effort was rebuffed.

Bray had opened the exchanges with a first-minute raid up the right, culminating in a Hugh Douglas ball that may have been intitially intended as a cross but ended forcing Brendan Clarke into a finger-tip save.

Ryan Brennan's resulting corner bounced out past the far post.

Seven minutes later, it was a Brennan free near the sideline that found Darragh Noone in space, allowing him to take a touch and shoot, again bringing a tipping save from the Pats minder.

In the mean time an attack by the visitors was defended well, Lynch forcing a goal-kick, and shortly afterwards a Darren Dennehy free was poorly delivered, flying well out of play on the right.

So the opening goal was little expected, as the Bray goalkeeper's late reaction showed, anmd it too0k several minutes before the team got back into action.

It was unclear whether the frequent exchanges of possession were due more to inaccurate passing than to clever interception, though on the play over the ninety minutes the former seems more likely.

Dylan Connolly and Christy Fagan were both flagged offside when well-positioned, and Billy Dennehy was warned after a particularly muscular challenge on Jason Marks.

Twenty minutes in, Lynch let his cross get away over the end line after neat midfield play wound up with a dash to the lefthand corner.

But during the remainder of the first period neither side showed much in the way of penetration.

In the final minutes, Jamie McGrath shot high after being fed by Lee Desmond, and Lynch had to clear off the goal-line when Billy Dennehy opened up the Bray defence and left Cherrie stranded.

In the early part of the second half, it was all Connolly, who seemed to have got the measure of his minder. He shot straight at Clarke in the opening minute, and had another couple of efforts, which the Pats keeper had to work a little for, seven and nine minutes later.

But it was a Lynch corner that provided the leveller for the home side, Pender getting a flick on it that some said was deflected by a defender.

Byrne had a shot off target for the visitors on the hour, and minute after that, Connolly on another run was bolting for the end when he was unceremoniously sacked in a manner that left him unsettled and unstable, and he was substituted ten minutes later.

Midway through, Lynch's cross was cleared by former Bray man Michael Barker at the expence of a corner following which McNally headed goalwards only for Billy Dennehy to clear back into his path, leaving him with a clear opportunity that he didn't refuse.

Just inside the final quarter hour, Cherrie had to parry a Byrne shot and touch away Fagan's rebound effort, but in truth neither keeper had much to do from then on.

Both Pender and Brennan wound up in Dave McKeon's book for simulation, which seemed a trifle harsh - there had been contact, heavy enough to fell them, in both cases.

Darren Dennehy shot over from distance, and a late Pats shot landed on the roof of Cherrie's net, but by that stage they really didn't look like a team that were going to score.

Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Bray Wanderers: 1 Peter Cherrie; 2 Hugh Douglas, 5 Alan McNally, 4 Conor Kenna (c), 19 Kevin Lynch; 3 John Sullivan; 16 Dylan Connolly, 22 Darragh Noone, 7 Ryan Brennan, 11 Jason Marks; 17 Gerard Pender
Subs: 9 Dean Kelly (for Pender 78), 15 Alan Kehoe (for Connolly 82 inj), 20 Paul Finnegan, 23 Gareth McDonagh (for Marks 93), 24 Seán Harding, 27 Chris Lyons, 40 Lee Stacey (gk)
St Patricks Athletic: 1 Brendan Clarke; 2 Ger O'Brien (c), 22 Michael Barker, 4 Darren Dennehy, 3 Ian Bermingham; 14 Graham Kelly; 7 Conan Byrne, 12 Lee Desmond, 19 Jamie McGrath, 20 Billy Dennehy; 9 Christopher Fagan
Subs: 6 David Cawley (for Kelly 80), 10 Daniel Corcoran (for McGrath 86), 11 Mark Timlin, 13 Rory Feely, 21 Darragh Markey, 25 Pat Jennings (gk), 27 Stephen Kinsella (for B Dennehy 82)
Referee: David McKeon