30th July 2010

Drogheda United v Bray Wanderers

Match Report

Airticity League of Ireland
Drogs 0 Bray 2

This was one to forget for the Drogs. If past performances by Bray at Hunky Dory Park this season were anything to go by, then we might have feared this. The plain fact is that, despite our heroics over the last few weeks, the team simply had a bad night.

How do eleven players and three subs have an off night at the same time you may ask – well , that’s what happened and all we can do is re-focus and get ready for the Pats match next Friday and put this behind us.

New signing Robert Duggan lined out between the sticks, Corie Treacy returned after illness with Eric McGill reverting to midfield. Despite Brendan McGill’s absence through injury, we looked to have a good solid lineup on the field.

There are no easy matches in this league but we started this one in a confident manner. Indeed the first four minutes saw us create three great chances. The first came when Ryan Brennan put John Flood through, with only the keeper to beat and his shot was blocked out. Almost immediately Mick Daly headed over from a good position and in the fourth minute Pate McMahon missed a good chance. Surprising then that or the remaining 86 minutes we simply didn’t get ourselves into good scoring positions.

After those early chances the game reverted into a midfield battle, where we seemed to be playing second fiddle to Bray’s better teamwork. Ominously in the 28th minute Bray’s one chance of the first half saw and unmarked O’Neill head over from straight in front of the goal. In at half time at 0-0.

In the second period we again applied early pressure with Flood having a chance blocked out . A minute later Bray surged forward and took the lead with a powerful shot from Mulroy. Our immediate response was to try and put pressure on them in the middle, but we seemed to be up against a brick wall. Apart from a few free kicks and corners we didn’t create any meaningful chances in the entire second half – and when in these set pieces we were well marked. The game was over as a contest on 69 when Jake Kelly scored a good second goal for the visitors.

Towards the end we had two really silly sendings off with Treacy and McGill both seeing red. This served to make the evening even more forgettable, really all we want to do now is draw a line under this and get ourselves ready for next Friday above in Richmond.

Team: Duggan, Treacy, Kendrick(Osbourne77),McNally, Daly, Crowley(Meenan 83), E. McGill, McMahon, Flood, Fitzpatrick(McEntageart 68), Brennan
Subs not used: Skinner, Colm Smyth