First Division

Carlisle Grounds
20 Oct 2023

In a rain-sodden and windswept Carlisle Grounds, a damp squid was perhaps the best this year's Seagulls squad could have hoped for. That said, it was, perhaps, a reasonable end to the season.

In all seriousness the team hadn't deserved a play-off place, and would not have deserved a place in the top flight had they got there.

Better to continue the rebuild and win on their merits next year, with some prospect pf staying up when they got up, than squeak up and yoyo down again.

A fortuitous penalty award allowing Chris Lyons to cancel out Matthew Makinson's mid first-half strike was the measure of the final game of the season, with a new record marked by under-age Irish international Billy O'Neill's youngest ever Bray first team debut.

Bray Wanderers: 45 Matthew Connor; 18 Max Murphy, 12 Cole Omorehiomwan, 14 D Massey (c), 4 Jack Hudson; 16 Callum Thompson, 17 Darren Craven, 8 Harry Groome, 20 Conor Knight, 21 G Almirall Peñalver; 9 Chris Lyons
Subs: 1 Alex Moody (gk), 5 David Webster (for Hudson 54), 7 Conor Crowley, 10 Conor Davis, 29 Daniel Chukwu (for Knight H/T), 39 Thomas Morgan, 41 Billy O'Neill (for Lyons 84), 42 Philip Cooney (for Craven 79), 43 Alain Kizenga (for Almirall H/T)
Finn Harps: 25 Oisin Cooney; 12 Stephen Doherty, 15 Kevin Jordan, 6 Noe Baba; 22 Ryan Rainey (c) , 20 Sean O'Donnell. 26 Tony McNamee, 42 Max Hutchison, 30 Jamie Watson; 28 Aaron McLaughlin, 55 Matthew Makinson
Subs: 3 Max Johnston, 10 Daniel Stokoe, 11 Seamas Keogh, 14 Caoimhin Porter, 16 Darragh Coyle, 19 Billy Banda Jr (for Rainey 80), 21 Damian Duffy, 40 Antonio Tuta (gk)
Referee: Daryl Carolan