First Division

Ferrycarrig
30 Sep 2022

It was entertaining, no doubt about it, even though it was another Bray defeat.

Two goals in the first quarter of an hour effectively sealed the outcome, but four more goals would be scored in the final half hour before the whistle, and both sides gave us plenty of what might have been called pretty football in an earlier era - crisp passing and good possession play, together with speedy interceptions.

Bray have suffered more perhaps than their share of early setbacks this season, but few as early as Conor Davis's second minute netting after two home players had managed to beat the offside. The ball was ultimately squared to Davis to shoot to the top left corner of the net.

Barely ten minutes later Eoin Farrell played forward for Adam Wells wide on the left, whose cross found Aaron Dobbs on the far side of the the six-yard box ready to slide onto it and score from that close range.

It took until just past the hour for Bray to mount an effective response, when Keith Dalton sent a corner from the right deep to the back post, where Bray skipper Hugh Douglas rose to steer a header back across Alex Moody to the net.

Seconds after a fairly spectacular stop by Bray goalie Stephen McGuinnes thwarted Farrell's attack, Jack Doherty was less than ten minutes on the field when Wells’s low cross from the left reached him cloes to the target, and he made no mistake.

And Bray Under-19 Evan Harte was barely two minutes on when he reduced the deficit: fellow substitute Callum Thompson broke up the left flank and fed the debutant with a pinpoint cross to convert for his first senior goal for the club.

Deep in time added, Wexford's Len O’Sullivan raced up the left to fire a running volley into the far top corner of McGuinness's net from just outside the box.

Full report to follow

Bray Wanderers: 1 Stephen McGuinness; 4 Zach Donohue, 5 Hugh Douglas (c) , 23 Conor McManus, 3 Kevin Knight; 6 Conor Clifford; 7 Keith Dalton, 21 Conor Knight, 27 Dean Zambra; 18 Zak O'Neill
Subs: 8 Evan Harte (for O'Neill 83) , 10 Kieran Waters, 11 Paul Fox, 12 Jack Hudson (for K Knight 39 inj), 16 Callum Thompson (for Donohue 55), 17 Josh McGlone (for Dalton 83), 24 Darragh Lynch (for C Knight 55), 33 Joe Gorman, 50 Benjamin Clark (gk)
Wexford: 13 Alex Moody; 3 Eoin Farrell, 5 Joe Manley, 4 Paul Cleary; 7 Conor Crowley, 6 Luka Lovic , 17 Adam Wells , 21 Harry Groome, 12 Thomas Considine ; 9 Conor Davis , 11 Aaron Dobbs
Subs: 2 Aidan Friel, 8 Conor Barry, 10 Jack Doherty (for Considine 65) , 15 Mitchell Byrne (for Crowley 56), 16 Len O'Sullivan (for Davis 87), 19 Evan Farrell, 23 Lorcan Fitzgerald, 24 Darragh Levingston (for Groome 87), 25 Shay O'Leary (gk)
Referee: Jason Moore