Friendly

Carlisle Grounds
08 Sep 2017

Hardly the result manager Harry Kenny might have wished for, but the purpose of the hastily arranged match was to ensure match fitness.

The First Division leaders established dominance on the pitch within minutes of the start.

Three minutes in, good build up work by Sean Heaney cumlinated in a cross from the left but Dean Walsh's shot came back off the woodwork.

With barely ten minutes on the clock the Blues went ahead, a Paul Keegan free kick falling into the path of Aaron Drinan, who didn't need a reminder where to put it.

The same player doubled the visitors' lead inside the half hour after some solid development work from Dean Walsh and Sander Puri.

And Puri worked a further blow to the hosts after combining well with Walsh two minutes later.

Bray's first serious attempt on their visitors' goal came minutes later, a long range effort by Aaron Greene that flew safely over Ian McLoughlin's crossbar.

And on the stroke of half time, a shot by Ger Pender brought a quick reaction from the Waterford keeper.

Substitutions, which would eventually total fourteen, began at the break, with among others Peter Cherrie making way for his understudy Lee Steacy.

And it was the replacement netminder who kept Puri's 54th minute shot out with his feet after Drinan had set the Estonian up.

At the end of an immediate Bray counter-attack, Ryan Brennan went close, heading over a Gary McCabe corner.

But two minutes after that at the other end it was Paul Keegan's turn, a fine 25m free flying just wide.

Gary McCabe was next to test McLoughlin for the home side, but the keeper was able to parry the strong effort by the Bray man, and he was well-positioned when Jake Ellis brpoke thropugh to fire at the target from the right.

But shortly after the hour, Keegan (not the former Seagull), put another free kick into the Wanderers net.

Walsh was the player fouled for that free, and he stepped up himself when he was taken down in the area by Kevin Lynch, making no mistake from the spot with less than a quarter of an hour to go.

It was Waterford's first victory over the Seagulls in eleven years, and their first in the Carlisle since an FAI Cup game in 2003.

Compiled by Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Bray Wanderers: 1 Peter Cherrie; 2 Hugh Doughlas, 21 Tim Clancy (c), 19 Kevin Lynch, 22 Darragh Noone; 6 Keith Buckley, 7 Ryan Brennan, 11 Gary McCabe; 17 Gerald Pender; 9 Aaron Greene
Subs: 3 John Sullivan (for Moore H/T), 13 Shane Heffernan (for Buckley 77), 14 Jamie Aherne (for Greene 72), 16 Luke Rossiter (for Brennan 77), 18 Calvin Rogers (for Clancy 62), 23 Jason Marks (for Pender H/T), 24 Jake Ellis (for McCabe 62), 93 Lee Steacy (for Cherrie H/T)
Waterford: 25 Ian McLoughlin; 11 Anthony McAlavey, 4 Paul Keegan , 32 Sean Heaney, 16 Jack Lynch; 22 Kenny Browne (c), 17 Patrick Barrett, 15 Dean Walsh , 12 Sander Puri ; 7 Dean O'Halloran, 23 Aaron Drinan
Subs: 1 Paul Martin (for McLoughlin 70), 3 Shane O'Connor, 10 David McDaid (for Drinan 64), 14 Conor Whittle (for Keegan 64), 19 Owen Wall (for Puri 64), 24 John Martin, 33 Darryl Walsh (for Browne 64)