Shelbourne 1 - 2 Bray Wanderers

John Mulroy was the man who finally ended Bray Wanderers’ losing streak as his second half goal helped the Seagulls to inflict a 2-1 defeat on Shelbourne at Tolka Park on Monday night.

Given that two of the bottom three teams were on show no-one should have been too surprised that the opening period was largely one of attrition. It started brightly enough with mark Leech finding himself clear through on the Bray goal after just two minutes but Darren Quigley pulled off a fine save and from then on most of the football was played by Bray.

With Kieran Marty Waters, John Mulroy and Dean Zambra all injecting pace into a Bray attack spearheaded by the evergreen Jason Byrne, they always looked the more likely to score. Byrne came close in the fourth minute when he was played through the middle but his jabbed shot from the edge of the box ran narrowly wide.

Marty Waters made no such mistake after 18 minutes when Gary Dempsey nudged the ball through for the young striker to run onto. He did well to hold off the challenge of Brian Shortall and kept his balance under pressure to poke the ball past Ger Hanley and into the Shels net.

Thereafter the game suffered from poor possession play and the ball spent far too much time in the air. Quigley did well to intervene as Shelbourne’s Stephen Hurley raced on to a through ball and Marty Waters delivered a fine cross to the home side's back post where Dean Zambra just failed to make contact.

Even the introduction of Philly Hughes for the injured Sean Brennan failed to ignite the home attack and the half time whistle came as something of a relief for all concerned.

Bray introduced Ismahil Akinade at the break and he immediately looked lively for the visitors but Shelbourne found the added intent they needed to get back into the game and Philly Hughes was inches away from equalising after 51 minutes when he connected well with Memery’s ball from the left.

There was time for Akinade to almost double Bray’s lead, Ger Hanley making a fine save to deny the substitute, before Shels conjured a goal in the 55th minute. Philly Hughes attempted to hold up play but was thwarted by a Bray boot, but the half cleared ball dropped onto Mark Leech’s forehead and his looping header cleared Quigley and found the far corner of the net.

Suddenly Shels came alive and proceeded to put the visitors under intense pressure. But Bray always looked dangerous on the break and Hanley was forced into a smart save by Akinade’s well hit snapshot on 65 minutes. Still Shels poured forwards but they struggled to make the breakthrough on Darren Quigley’s goal.

On 73 minutes Akinade did a great job of holding up the ball before feeding Mulroy on the right. He cut inside and fired a shot just wide of the near post but it was a warning Shelbourne failed to heed. Two minutes later an identical move again placed Mulroy inside the Shels area but this time he finished with a low shot to the net from 15 yards.

It took Alan Mathews’ side some time to recover and Bray might have put the game out of sight in the meantime, but over the final stages Shelbourne revived and laid siege to the Bray goal. A number of scrappy half chances came and went before, deep in added time, the ball dropped to Mark Leech and his spectacular overhead kick was athletically tipped over by Quigley.

That was last orders in the last chance saloon and the whistle ended another disappointing night for the home team, while Bray can finally celebrate a deserved end to their seven game losing streak.

Shelbourne: Ger Hanley; Pat Flynn, Ian Ryan, Brian Shortall, Jack Memery; Adam Hanlon (Alex Prizeman 52), Craig Mooney (Dean Kelly 77), Paul Crowley, Stephen Hurley, Sean Brennan (Philly Hughes 33); Mark Leech.

Subs not used: Adam O’Connor, Graham Gartland, Stephen Sheerin, Darren Tinnelly.

Booked: Shortall (48), Prizeman (61), Ryan (84).

Bray Wanderers: Darren Quigley; Shane O’Connor, Eoin Hyland (Daire Doyle 70), Dave Webster, Conor Early; Kieran Marty Waters, John Mulroy, Gary Dempsey, Dean Zambra, Kevin Knight (Ismahil Akinade 46); Jason Byrne (Daniel Joyce 83).

Subs not used: Sean Holmes, Daniel Joyce, Paul Malone, Peter Thomas, Adam Cox.

Booked: Knight (42), Webster (61).

Referee: Rob Rogers.

Attendance: 678

Extratime Man of the Match: Ismahil Akinade (Bray Wanderers).