BRAY BEATEN AS GORMAN IS ON TARGET
Shelbourne 1
Bray Wanderers 1
FAI CUP RD 2 REPLAY
A PHILIP GORMAN strike was crucial in Tolka Park last night, as Shelbourne got the better of a dogged Bray Wanderers in an entertaining FAI Ford Cup second round replay.
Shels’ win was revenge for their defeat to the same opposition in the EA Sports Cup.
Pat Devlin’s Seagulls had opted for an unchanged team following their 1-1 stalemate in the Carlisle Grounds on Friday evening.
Switch
Shels did opt for one switch, with Ian Ryan replacing Gareth Matthews on the right side of the hosts’ back-four.
Bray had the first meaningful opportunity of the game when John Mulroy’s strike from a left angle was saved comfortably by Shels netminder Dean Delany.
The interchanging of Bray’s wingers, Kieran Marty Waters and Adam Hanlon was causing the Drumcondra men plenty of problems.
Waters shot agonisingly past the left-hand post after cutting in from the right flank on 15 minutes.
Bray had enjoyed a sterling second half in the drawn encounter and they were carrying that momentum into this tie.
Jason Byrne ran on to an underhit back-pass by Andy Boyle on 19 minutes, only to be eventually beaten to the ball by the alert Delany at the second time of asking.
Shels were struggling to impose themselves in the final-third but a Paddy Kavanagh shot on 25 minutes curled just wide of Darren Quigley’s goal.
Things started to heat up after the half-hour mark as Glen Cronin and Gorman both found themselves in Neil Doyle’s notebook, before Bray’s ever-industrious Mulroy shot wide from a 30-yard free-kick.
At this point, it appeared more than likely that the sides would be scoreless heading into the break, but Shels had other ideas.
Kavanagh’s perfectly weighted cross from the left-wing was nodded by the powerful Philly Hughes towards his striker partner Gorman, who managed to poke the ball past the stranded Quigley from 12 yards.
Mulroy had a decent shout for a penalty when he went down in the Shels area five minutes after the resumption, but the appeals were waved away by Doyle.
Shels, though, got top and on 62 minutes Kavanagh played the ball inside to skipper David Cassidy but the strike on goal by the Shels captain was dealt with by the Wanderers rearguard.
Shels continued to control the tempo of the game, ut as the final quarter beckoned, Bray pushed on in search of an equaliser.
Chased
As the Seagulls chased a goal Shels went close to doubling their lead with eight minutes remaining when Gorman attempted an audacious back-heel from a Kevin Dawson pull-back, but he was narrowly off target with his effort.
A minute later Bray sub Dane Massey rose majestically to head an Adam Hanlon corner towards goal, but he was desperately unfortunate to see the ball hit the post and go safe.
That was as close as they got with Quigley forced to save a Kavanagh piledriver late on to keep it 1-0.
SHELBOURNE: Delany 7; Ryan 7, Boyle 7, Shortall 7, Clancy 7; Cassidy 7, Cronin 7, Dawson 7, Kavanagh 8; Hughes 7 (Murphy 84), Gorman 8. Subs not used: Paisley, C Byrne, McGill, Skinner, S Byrne, P Byrne.
BRAY WANDERERS: Quigley 7; Webster 6, O’Connor 7, Sweeney 7, Knight 7 (Kelty 84); Hanlon 7, Zambra 7 (Bolger 87), Houston 6 (Massey 67, 7), Mulroy 7, Waters 7; Byrne 6. Subs not used: Mitchell, Doyle, Kelly, Kane.
REFEREE: Neil Doyle (Dublin).