Devlin mourns 2 points dropped

Both managers in the Carlisle Grounds last Friday night felt they could have got the win but it was Bray Wanderers Manager Pat Devlin who was most disappointed with the 2-2 draw. His team led by two goals at half time and still had that lead going into the last quarter of the game against Shamrock Rovers but conceded two goals to let three points slip away.

“When you have three points, you want to hold onto them,” said Pat Devlin when talking to extratime.ie pitch-side after the game. The opportunity to claim three points against the League of Ireland champions was provided by Kieran ‘Marty’ Waters. It was a fluid display by the 21 year old who caused all sorts of difficulty for the Rovers defence.

“He was fantastic,” said Devlin. “He had a great first half but overall he worked so hard. His finishing was excellent.” Waters scored the opener on 16 minutes with a fine strike with his left foot and his second came from his right boot as he turned Craig Sives inside out before firing the ball past Oscar Jannson in the Rovers goal.

Bray were very unhappy with the concession of a penalty just before half time as Gary Twigg went down following a challenge from Pierce Sweeney. Keith Long was sent off from the Bray bench by referee Paul McLaughlin for his complaints. Luckily for Bray, Rovers couldn’t legitimately score having put the ball in the net twice and ruled out twice from the subsequent penalty by the ref and so Bray led 2-0 at half time.

In the second half, Bray allowed Rovers to come back into the game with the referee not helping the home side’s cause according to Devlin. “I thought the referee changed completely after half time. His attitude was brutal in the second half. It was just so strange.” Bray picked up four bookings in a 20 minute second half spell.

“We didn’t start playing again and we didn’t play as well as in the first half. We knew they were going to throw everything at us. I suppose we defended a little bit deep.  When they got the first goal we were always going to be under pressure. They launched things in behind our left back. They started getting a good bit of satisfaction off that. Then they got it to Twigg and were picking bits off that.”

There is a lot for Devlin to build on after a fine performance by Bray against the League of Ireland champions and he takes his Bray team to play bottom side Monaghan United next Friday night.