UCD 2 - 3 Bray Wanderers

• Daire Walsh
• Fri, Aug 27 2010


Two second-half goals from Jake Kelly sent Pat Devlin's Bray Wanderers into the last-eight of the FAI Ford Cup, following a thrilling encounter at the UCD Bowl on Friday evening. UCD did forge a strong comeback at the end when the Kilcock-born Ciaran Kilduff hit a brace for the home side, but Bray held out for the victory in the end.

The game had begun with UCD looking like being the team that would do the most attacking, with Dwayne Wilson on the right-wing showing plenty of pace as well as a willingness to take on his direct opponent. The Students also had the first real opportunity of the game when Greg Bolger lined up a free-kick 30 yards from the Bray goal. His curling effort was a good one, and some of the home support thought the ball had actually found its way into the top-corner of the net, but it in fact hit the side-netting, which meant that Bray could breathe a sigh of relief.

Bray did begin to settle after this though with Kelly and Shane O'Neill, as always, being bright sparks in their attack. Indeed, these two men were heavily involved in the move that opened the scoring on ten minutes, as Kelly's free-kick from the right was nodded on by left-back Sean Houston, before falling to O'Neill, who finished coolly to the back of the UCD net to give Bray a surprise lead.

Given the way they started the game, this would have come as something of a disappointment to Martin Russell and his team, and they almost went 2-0 down just three minutes later when O'Neill raced onto a through ball by Dean Zambra, but his shot hit the outside of the far post. UCD did start to take the game to The Seagulls after this, but there was very little getting past the solid Shane O'Connor and Derek Prendergast at the centre of the Bray defence.

Centre-forward Kilduff did manage to get up for a header on 26 minutes, but Bray goalie Matt Gregg climbed high to catch his attempt. Then, just a minute later, Bray went tantalisingly close to increasing their lead, when O'Neill knocked a pass from Danny O'Connor past the on-rushing Barron, but Andy Boyle was on hand to clear off the line.

It was end-to-end stuff at this stage, as Kilduff looked like he had secured a penalty for his side when he went down under a challenge in the Bray area, but he was in fact booked for diving by match referee Dave McKeon. After this the play did die down a bit, and the only other chance of note came with two first-half minutes remaining when a diving header by Zambra was expertly tipped over by Barron, who was at full-stretch.

UCD did threaten slightly in the final moments of the opening period, but they had to make due with a 0-1 deficit as they went into their dressing room at the mid-way interval. This set the game up for an interesting period of 45 minutes, although the second half did begin in quite a scrappy fashion.

However, a moment of magic did arrive on 54 minutes when a long-ball over the top by Shane O'Connor found its way to Jake Kelly on the left-wing, and he attempted an outrageous shot from an almost impossible angle, which completely deceived the stranded Barron in between the sticks for last year's First Division Champions for his side's second goal.

This put Bray into a terrific position heading into the final half-hour, and it really threw down the gauntlet to UCD, who went into this game with no win in six games (in all competitions), although their last victory was, ironically enough, a 4-0 victory over Bray in the league on July 16th.

It was starting to look quite probable that they wouldn't beat them in this game, and Bray had another good chance on the hour when a loose ball fell to O'Neill, but his shot flew over from an awkward angle. Three minutes later, Russell introduced Brian Shorthall and Keith Ward from the bench in an attempt to swing the match back in their favour.

Unfortunately for The Students though, they were hit on the break on 68 minutes, when an excellent delivery by David Webster on the right found the outstanding Kelly on the far side, and he made no mistake by drilling the ball to the far corner of the net. It was looking game over at this stage, as Bray didn't look like conceding at any point in this game.

However, as the game entered the final ten minutes, UCD found an extra gear, and the always dangerous Kilduff found the back of the net with close range efforts in the 83rd and 85th minutes, having been set-up by Robbie Creevy and substitute Keith Ward.

This meant that Bray were in for a much tougher end to the game than they probably had envisaged, and they were really under an enormous amount of pressure for the final moments of the game, as UCD went looking for the goal that would bring this game to a replay.

Bray managed to hold on for a memorable win though and, based on the evidence here, they will be a tough proposition for whoever they are drawn against in the quarter-final.

UCD: Barron; O'Conor, Boyle, McMillan, O'Connor (Shorthall '63); Wilson (Ward '63), Bolger, Rusk, Creevy, Mulhall; Kilduff.
Subs not used: Leahy, Corry, Moore, Brennan, Nangle.

Bray Wanderers: Gregg; Webster, S O'Connor, Prendergast, Houston; D O'Connor, Zambra, Dempsey, Shields, Kelly (Doyle '81); O'Neill.
Subs not used: Tresson, Kavanagh, Brennan, Mitchell, Byrne, Kane.

Referee: D. McKeon (Dublin).
Attendance: 376.
Extra Time Man Of The Match: Jake Kelly (Bray Wanderers).