First Division

Carlisle Grounds
14 Oct 2022

An unexpectedly rampant Ramblers performance led to their highest scoring victory of the season and an unsettling anti-climax to a home season the Seagulls will want to forget.

Ben Feeney's early opener, following a surging run from Callum Thompson and a cross any striker would yearn for, was to prove an empty promise, as the Ramblers found space to create an equaliser within six minutes.

A corner was not properly cleared, cut back from the endline and allowed Luke Desmond to apply the finishing touch.

Just inside the hour, a Bray attack was intercepted by Kargbo which allowed Dale Holland to push forward, and a one-two between Danny O'Connell and Liam Kervick, the latter spreading wide where Cobh captain John Kavanagh was unmarked and able to shoot at an angle beyond Stephen McGuinness's reach.

With barely a quarter hour remaining, a Cobh corner punched high by McGuinness was headed back down by Justin Eguaibor to where Kervick had only to tap it home.

Worse was to follow. A run by Cobh substitute David Eguaibor ended with a cross that seemed to be under control by Joe Gorman, but the ballspun wrong and fellow sub Beineón O'Brien Whitmarsh was well placed to run on to it and fire straight at McGuinness, whose outstretched foot for once succeeded only in lofting the ball behind him and into the net.

And the five minutes added only added to Bray's misery, a ong ballut of the visitors' defence was reached in the air by Jake Hegarty who nodded it down to where Desmond was able behind the Bray defence to round the home keeper and shoot low to an empty net.

It was a fine conclusion to the Ramblers' centenary season. Bray face the Divisional champions in the Seagulls' final game next week. This writer is not a gambling man, but ...

Full report to follow

Bray Wanderers: 1 Stephen McGuinness; 33 Joe Gorman, 5 Hugh Douglas (c), 12 Jack Hudson, 11 Paul Fox; 6 Conor Clifford; 15 Eoin Massey, 7 Keith Dalton, 16 Callum Thompson; 9 Evan Harte, 26 Ben Feeney
Subs: 4 Zach Donohue (for Thompson 78), 10 Kieran Waters (for Fox 82), 17 John McGlone (for Harte 65), 19 Daniel O'Boyle, 21 Conor Knight (for Massey 65), 23 Conor McManus, 24 Darragh Lynch (for Dalton 78), 35 Benjamin Clark (gk), 37 Colin Kelly
Cobh Ramblers: 30 Darragh Burke; 2 John Kavanagh (c) , 5 Brendan Frahill, 6 Jason Abbott, 17 Justin Eguaibor, 24 Issa Kargbo ; 28 Dale Holland, 14 Sean McGrath, 16 Luke Desmond ; 21 Liam Kervick , 7 Danny O'Connell
Subs: 3 Charlie Fleming (for Kavanagh 87), 9 Beineón O'Brien Whitmarsh (for Kervick 79) , 10 Jake Hegarty (for McGrath 79), 12 Daragh O'Sullivan Connell (for Kargbo 73), 13 Gavin Ryan (gk), 26 David Eguaibor (for O'Connell 87)
Referee: Mark Houlihan