First Division

Carlisle Grounds
26 Jul 2019

A hat-trick from former Athlone loan player Dean Williams combined with sterling back-of-midfield work by captain Paul Keegan to provide a valuable three points for the home side at the Carlisle Grounds.

Honours were fairly even throughout the first half: although Bray had the bulk of the possession, neither keeper had a save of significance to make.

The visitors were showing a flair for speedy response and nnippy intervention that balked several interesting Seagulls attacks.

But the well-judged runs of Williams in behind the Midlanders' defence made the most of surges up the right by Luke Nolan and Jake Ellis to seal a much-needed victory.

Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Bray Wanderers: 1 Gabriel Sava; 22 Luke Nolan, 4 Killian Cantwell, 5 Seán Heaney, 11 Derek Daly; 12 John Martin, 6 Paul Keegan (c), 8 Philip Gannon, 19 Brandon McCann; 10 Dylan McGlade, 18 Dean Williams
Subs: 14 Jake Ellis (for Gannon 66), 15 Darragh Gibbons, 17 Luka Lovic (for McCann 84), 20 Dylan Thornton (for Martin 80), 29 Conor Behan
Athlone Town: 1 Aaron Myles; 8 Aaron Brilly (c), 14 Seán Fitzpatrick, 26 Paddy Kelly, 17 John Morgan; 7 Darren Meenan, 10 Kealan Dillon, 24 Rhys Gorman, 6 Shane Dunne, 15 Janabi Amour; 21 Jean-Yves Poame
Subs: 2 Dean O'Shea, 3 Dean Casey, 9 Nika Kalandarshvili (for Dillon 70, 18 Jamie Hamilton (for Amour 59 inj), 19 Ollie Hamzat, 25 Evan Pierce (for Poame 52), 30 Gargar Ta-Uway (gk)
Referee: Tomás Connolly