Bray Wanderers 2 - 1 Bluebell United

• Finbarr O'Sullivan
• Sat, Jun 13 2009


Bray Wanderers narrowly squeezed into the fourth round of the FAI Cup with a 2-1 win over Bluebell United. The match was not without incident as the Seagulls had a man sent off early on and both sides were awarded a penalty.

The sending off came in the 24th minute when Chris Shields was dismissed. Shields himself had been fouled by Bluebell’s Graham Dunning but he kicked out while lying injured on the ground. He was shown the red card as he was stretchered off the pitch with a suspected hip injury.

On 41 minutes, Jake Kelly had a chance for the Seagulls. After a long ball up from Daire Doyle, Kelly collected the ball deep in the Bluebell half before running into the box but his shot from 15-yards was blocked by Niall Donnelly.

Three minutes into stoppage time at the end of the first half, Wanderers should have taken the lead through Kelly. The forward pounced on a mistake by Bluebell’s Glen Keddy and ran clear of the United defenders into the box. When he was in one-on-one with keeper Keith Gallagher, he tried to side-foot the ball under Gallagher but the shot-stopper used his feet to turn the ball wide of the post.

Eight minutes into the second half, Kelly had another chance. Gareth Coughlan crossed in from the right and Kelly directed the ball goalwards with a header from the penalty spot. However, Gallagher was easily able to collect the ball.

Bluebell finally had their first effort of the night in the 63rd minute. Paul Connaughton's long-throw caused trouble in the Bray box and Dunning was on hand to hook the ball goalwards from six-yards but his strike went over.

Two minutes later, it was the ten-men who took the lead. After a Gary McCabe shot was saved by Gallagher, Bray had a succession of corners. With the second one, Dane Massey’s delivery landed on the head of Paul Byrne who steered it home from eight-yards out.

In the 73rd minute, the game had its major talking point. Paul Byrne played a pass back to Chris O’Connor. However, it was too short as sub Gerrard Bambrick picked up on it and tried to round O’Connor. The Seagulls keeper tripped the United player and referee Richie Winter awarded a penalty. Despite being the last man, O’Connor was only given a yellow card and then dived to his right to save Ciaran Quinn‘s penalty.

On 86 minutes, Wanderers seemed to have sealed the tie when they doubled their lead through Gary McCabe’s penalty. Paul Byrne had been fouled by Connaughton just inside the area and McCabe easily dispatched the spot-kick.

Bluebell did not give up though and went close four minutes after. Following a corner, the ball fell to Daragh Hollingsworth who played the ball into Bambrick. Bambrick knocked the ball up before connecting with an overhead kick that forced O’Connor into a smart save.

From Keddy’s resulting corner, Bluebell pulled one back. Dunning flicked on the cross at the near post and Andrew Cleary bundled the ball over the line as he slid in at the far post.

Bluebell pushed for an equaliser and only a minute later another Keddy corner fell to Cleary at the far post. This time, he headed back across goal but his effort took a deflection off a Bray player and went inches wide of O’Connor’s goal.

To the relief of their fans, Bray held on and will be in the draw for the next round.

Bray Wanderers: O'Connor; Doyle (Massey, 45), Pender, Mulcahy, Webster (Dave O‘Neill, 12); Coughlan, McCabe, Brennan, Shields; Byrne, Kelly (Shane O‘Neill, 62). Subs not used: Kane, Forsyth, Mulroy. Bookings: McCabe (35), O‘Connor (73), Brennan (83). Sent off: Shields (24). .

Bluebell United: Gallagher; Killeen, Kenny, Connaughton, Donnelly; Keddy, Kevin Smith (Bambrick, 68), Hollingsworth, Dunning; Quinn, Loughran (Andrew Cleary, 87). Subs not used: Stuart Smith, John Cleary, Curran, Clohessy. Bookings: Donnelly (11), Bambrick (75), Andrew Cleary (90+1)..

Attendance: 300 (estimate)..

Referee: Richie Winters (Wicklow)..

Extratime.ie man of the match: Gary McCabe - one of the few players to make a difference in this match.