League Report: Dundalk 1 - 3 Bray Wanderers

Bray Wanderers continued their best ever start to a top-flight campaign in controversial fashion as they defeated Dundalk 3-1 at Oriel Park as they moved level on points with the champions.

In a week that Stephen Kenny lamented his side’s lack of penalties over the past year, it was the visitors who were astonishingly awarded two spot kicks in the match. Gary McCabe duly dispatched both, either side of Stephen O’Doonell’s goal for Dundalk. However Ryan Brennan added the killer blow for Bray to leave Dundalk sitting nine points behind league leaders Cork City.

Referee Jim McKell took centre stage as pantomime villain at the home of the of three time champions on Good Friday with the Tipperary native, along with his officials, being roundly booed off at the full-time whistle.

The Lilywhites dominated the first-half after a cagey opening ten minutes and had their first shot on goal when Michael Duffy’s corner was only cleared as far as Conor Clifford, but his shot was easily handled by former Dundalk goalkeeper Peter Cherrie.

Cherrie, who spent the best part of six years with Dundalk, was again on hand soon after this time producing a magnificent save when Chris Shield’s excellent cross-field pass found the feet of Jamie McGrath. His  effort put the Scottish ‘keeper to the test after teasing and tormenting the Bray defence.

Patrick McEleney, who missed the recent victories over Drogheda United and Finn Harps through injury, was named as the club’s player of the month shortly before kick-off and he produced a fine piece of magic when his curling effort almost sailed into the net after nutmegging Tim Clancy.

The Seagulls went close to scoring the opener against the run of play on the half-hour mark when a corner from the left was almost deflected into his own net by Brian Gartland. Only for the intervention of Niclas Vemmelund, who did brilliantly to clear the ball off the line with Gary Rogers stranded, Bray would have had taken the lead.

Shields saw his goalbound effort blocked shortly before the break and Dundalk continued to pile on the pressure after the restart. Duffy was next to try his luck, cutting in from the left before curling a right-footed shot just wide of the post after getting on the end of a wonderful pass from McEleney.

Oriel Park was stunned into silence on 54 minutes however, when a penalty was awarded to the visitors after O’Donnell was adjudged to have pushed Aaron Greene to the floor. McCabe converted the resulting spot kick even though Rogers had guessed correctly.

Dundalk almost immediately restored parity when David McMillan headed over from a McEleney cross before the hosts did deservedly equalise moments later through O’Donnell. He made amends for conceding the penalty by dinking the ball over Cherrie after some wonderful build up play and a neat pass from McMillan.

The Lilywhites were now in the ascendancy and pressing for the winning goal before McKell inexplicably awarded another penalty to Bray after Brennan went down in the box. Up stepped McCabe, who again made no mistake to score his ninth goal of the season in as many games.

There were no such excuses however when the Seagulls added the killer third with a quarter of an hour to go. Keith Buckley left Dane Massey in his wake before his cross was cut out by Vemmelund, but Brennan was on hand to fire home past Rogers from the rebound. It left Dundalk with a huge mountain to climb both on the night and in the race for the title.

Dundalk: Gary Rogers; Niclas Vemmelund, Brian Gartland, Sean Hoare, Dane Massey; Jamie McGrath (Steven Kinsella 74), Conor Clifford (Stephen O’Donnell 46), Chris Shields, Michael Duffy (Thomas Stewart 80); Patrick McEleney, David McMillan.

Subs not used: Gabriel Sava, Paddy Barrett, John Mountney, Ciaran Kilduff.

Booked: Conor Clifford (45), Chris Shields (66), Stephen O’Donnell (68).

Bray Wanderers: Peter Cherrie; Keith Buckley, Tim Clancy, Derek Foran, Jason Marks (Karl Moore 79); Ryan Brennan (Darragh Noone 88), Mark Salmon, John Sullivan, Dylan Connolly (Anto Flood 85); Gary McCabe, Aaron Greene.

Subs not used: Lee Steacy, Alan Kehoe, Jamie Aherne, Ger Pender.

Booked: John Sullivan (32), Derek Foran (36), Mark Salmon (38), Gary McCabe (38).

Referee: Jim McKell

Attendance: 3,031

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Chris Shields (Dundalk)