Gary Cronin: 'Ultimately we want to win so we’re going to do everything we can to be victorious on Friday night'

Bray Wanderers are facing into a crucial First Division Play-off Final on Friday night when they meet UCD at Dalymount Park (kick-off 7.45pm).

The Seagulls battled past Galway United over two legs to make it this far in the playoffs despite the Tribesmen being the favourites in that tie.

A single Brandon Kavanagh goal in the second leg saw Gary Cronin’s side progress with the Wanderers silencing a sold-out crowd in Eamonn Deacy Park on the day.

Manager Gary Cronin must have been satisfied with the win, especially after Galway United ended the Seagulls First Division title challenge, and then knocked them out of the playoffs the previous season.

Cronin has put everything behind him now though, and the club are fully focussed on Friday night.

The mood has been good around the place, we’ve had a good couple of weeks training. The atmosphere has been quite good,” Cronin said, speaking to extratime.com.

“We gave the players 24 hours to enjoy the win against Galway. It’s hard to get over defeats and it’s equally important to enjoy victories so for them 24 hours we let the victory sink in.

“It was a hard fought two-legged affair against Galway so the lads deserved that but as soon as that lapsed we were fully focused on the next game which is the final of the play-offs against UCD and yeah we’ve been preparing for that since the win and the Galway game is gone now and we’re looking forward to the game on Friday.”

There wasn’t a whole lot between Bray Wanderers and UCD across the three games they faced off in during the First Division campaign, with both sides winning a game each and playing out a scoreless draw in the third.

Cronin isn’t dwelling on past meetings, however.

“Previous games don’t really come into the equation for Friday’s game to be perfectly honest with you.

“If you look at the last two league games, we won 4-0 at home and then lost 4-3 at the UCD Bowl and UCD were four nil up with ten minutes to go and you can’t really read too much into those games.

“You just have to look forward to this final and it’s a different type of game because it’s winner takes all and there’s no getting back into form in the league or anything like that.

“It’ll be a tight affair and we have huge respect for our opponents UCD as they will have with us considering the players both sides have, and hopefully it leads to an enjoyable game of football.

“Ultimately we want to win so we’re going to do everything we can to be victorious on Friday night, but previous games don’t matter and it’s all about the final and getting through that and then into the final game against the Premier Division club hopefully.”

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— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) November 17, 2021