Premier

Turners Cross
28 Apr 2017

Cork City maintained their winning streak courtesy of an early Seán Maguire penalty and a late Johnny Dunleavy strike.

But Bray salvaged some pride, denying the hosts a clean sheet with a late late goal from Derek Foran.

The attendance was an impressive 5300+, which suggests that success is its own publicity machine!

All the more satisfactory for Cork was the fact that Dundalk suffered a shock defeat in Galway tonight, leaving the southerners a full twelve points ahead at the end of a record-breaking first series of games.

The home side were dominant in the early stages, though a decent attack by Bray was cleared by the Cork defence and Gary McCabe shot high just before the roof fell in.

Karl Sheppard hit the post just ten minutes in and the ball went out off Peter Cherrie. Then as Stephen Dooley's flag-kick was delivered, Referee Paul McLaughlin pointed to the penalty spot, apparently as a result of an infringement by Foran.

It wasn't entirely clear at the time what the nature of the infringement was, but evidently the Bray defender was pulling at Ryan Delaney.

Striker of the moment Maguire sent Bray keeper Peter Cherrie the wrong way with a well judged shot.

But it was the Scot who was the key player for the visitors for the remainder of the first half, his defence of the net impeccable thereafter, saving twice in succession from Maguire within minutes of the score, and ending the half with another good stop after Dooley had slipped past the defence.

In between times Karl Sheppard had had decent efforts on target, but the attack that almost put the cat among the pigeons fell to Dylan Connolly, whose fine run was brought to a premature conclusion by a superb Kevin O'Connor tackle.

And the Seagulls put it up to the League leaders throughout the second period. Connolly was the early attacker for the Seagulls, but it was a John Sullivan header from a corner that was cleared off the line by Conor McCormack six minutes in.

Minutes later, Cherrie's feet blocked another Seán Maguire effort.

McCabe came close to restoring equality, first sending a long free to Foran, whose header failed to beat Mark McNulty, and then himself firing just over the Cork keeper's bar.

Cherrie then had to scramble to claim a Keith Buckley back header with Dooley bearing down on him.

Tim Clancy made a finely judged tackle to deny Sheppard with just over twenty minutes left, after Keohane had played him in.

And Connolly went agonisingly close to scoring minutes after that, curling his effort wide of the right hand post when he lost full control of the shot.

Cork deserved their second goal, Cherrie stopping a good Dunleavy header from a free, but within a minute unable to get in the way when the home skipper met an O'Connor corner to score two minutes from the end of regulation time after the Bray defence failed to clear.

In time added, Foran managed to create a little space at the back post which he used to head home and deny McNulty a clean sheet.

Compiled by Mícheál Ó hUanacháin
Bray Wanderers: 1 Peter Cherrie; 6 Keith Buckley, 5 Derek Foran , 21 Tim Clancy (c) , 23 Jason Marks; 8 Mark Salmon, 3 John Sullivan : 16 Dylan Connolly, 11 Gary McCabe, 7 Ryan Brennan; 9 Aaron Greene
Subs: 4 Conor Kenna, 10 Karl Moore (for Salmon 73), 14 Jamie Aherne (for McCabe 85), 17 Gerald Pender, 20 Anthony Flood (for Brennan 77), 22 Darragh Noone, 93 Lee Steacy (gk)
Cork City: 1 Mark McNulty; 10 Steven Beattie, 4 Johnny Dunleavy (c) , 5 Ryan Delaney, 14 Kevin O'Connor; 8 Conor McCormack , 6 Greg Bolger; 16 Gearóid Morrissey; 19 Karl Sheppard, 24 Seán Maguire , 11 Stephen Dooley
Subs: 7 Jimmy Keohane (for Bolger 59), 9 Achille Campion, 15 Christian Nanetti, 17 Connor Ellis (for Maguire 90), 20 Shane Griffin (for Dooley 84), 25 Alan Smith (gk), 27 Adam O'Sullivan
Referee: Paul McLaughlin