Bohemians 3 - 0 Bray Wanderers

Bohemians booked their place in the semi-final of the FAI Cup with a comfortable 3-0 win over ten-man Bray Wanderers at Dalymount Park on Friday night.

Bray went into the game full of confidence after a great run of form in the league. But, Bohs, who have also been on a decent run of form themselves, proved far too good for Pat Devlin’s men.

Mark Quigley’s stunning 25-yard strike put the home side in front mid- way through the first-half. The former St. Patrick’s Atheltic striker collected the ball from Raffaele Cretaro and then unleashed an unstoppable effort past Matt Gregg in the Bray goal.

Bray almost equalised when Bohs keeper Chris O’Connor failed to deal with Gary Shaw’s effort and Dean Zambra almost took full advantage. His strike was dealt with by the Bohs defence who managed to clear the ball off their line.

Cretaro doubled the home side’s advantage with 53 minutes on the clock. A perfectly weighted ball by Killian Brennan found the feet of the former Sligo man and he made no mistake from the edge of the Bray penalty area.

The visitors’ chances of progressing were all but ended when Shane O’Connor was shown a straight red card by referee Neil Doyle. The Bray defender was the last man when he pulled Cretaro to the ground and was unsurprisingly sent for an early bath.

Substitute Aaron Greene completed the scoring for Pat Fenlon’s men with just ten minutes to go. Greene got on the end of a perfect through ball by Cretaro and then rounded Gregg to send the Bohs fans home smiling.

Greene really should have made it four for the home side towards the end. Just like his goal, Greene rounded the keeper but he somehow managed to miss an open goal from inside the Bray area. And that’s how it finished. Bray will no doubt be looking to bounce back from this heavy defeat as they face UCD next week. Bohs travel to the Showgrounds on Tuesday night in a game they will be desperate to win to keep the pressure on Shamrock Rovers at the top of the Airtricity League table.

Bohemians: Chris O’Connor; Owen Heary, Brian Shelley, Jason McGuinness (Ken Oman 44), Conor Powell; Gareth McGlynn (Paul Keegan 59), Mark Quigley, Glenn Cronin, Killian Brennan; Raffaele Cretaro, Jason Byrne (Aaron Greene 70).
Unused subs: B Murphy, Mark Rossiter, Ruaidhri Higgins, Paddy Madden.

Bray Wanderers: Matt Gregg; Dave Webster, Shane O’Connor, Derek Prendergast, Dane Massey (Shane O’Neill 63); Dean Zambra, Gary Dempsey, Danny O’Connor (John Mulroy 74), Chris Shields; Sean Houston, GaryShaw (Adam Mitchell 59).
Unused subs: Brian Kane, Daire Doyle, Stephen Brennan, Colm Tresson.

Referee: Neil Doyle.
Attendance: 1,260
Extratime Man of the Match: Killian Brennan (Bohemians).