Bohemians 0 - 0 Bray Wanderers

• Cathal Breathnach
• Fri, Oct 01 2010


Nine men Bohemians played out a goalless draw with Bray Wanderers on Friday night at Dalymount Park.

A fast start was required for the champions as Bohs looked to close the gap on Shamrock Rovers at the top of the Airtricity League table. However, it was Bray who had the first opportunity of the game when Gary Shaw almost took full advantage of a lapse in concentration from Brian Shelley in the Bohs defence.

Gary Shaw nearly put the visitors ahead on 25 minutes when he got on the end of a misplaced pass by Mark Quigley. The Bray striker may have done better with his shot which was comfortably saved by Chris O’Connor in the Bohs goal.

Glenn Cronin then responded with a 30-yard strike just moments later which drifted just wide of Matt Gregg’s left-hand post. Seconds later, Cronin had a shot from the edge of the Bray penalty area. Unfortunately for Cronin, his effort struck the outside of the post and away from danger.

Paddy Madden, who was restored to the Bohs starting line-up after several weeks spent sitting on the bench, almost opened the scoring just before the break when his left-footed strike rolled narrowly wide of Gregg’s left-hand post.

Madden went close again just after the break. The ball fell to the feet of Madden after a superb individual run from Raffaelle Cretaro. Once again though, Gregg did enough to keep the scores level.

Gregg was called into action again on the 67th minute. This time it was Mark Quigley who threatened the Bray goalkeeper after the former St Pat’s man weaved through the Seagulls defence only to see his shot comfortably dealt with by Gregg.

Bohs’ chances of picking up the three points they so desperately needed were dealt a major blow with 72 minutes on the clock. Quigley was shown a straight red card by referee Padraig Sutton for head-butting Bray’s Adam Mitchell.

Ten men then became nine men for the hosts as Chris O’Connor also saw red for bringing down the impressive Gary Shaw. Bohs were forced to change things following the red cards with substitute goalkeeper Barry Murphy coming onto replace Mark Rossiter.

Bray were now in control of the game and both Gary Shaw and Dean Zambra went close to handing Pat Devlin’s men an invaluable three points late on. Substitute Murphy made a superb save with just minutes to go after Dane Massey drilled one from just 12-yards out.

Paul Keegan forced the man of the match on the night, Matt Gregg, into yet another save with just minutes to go. Gregg managed to pull off his most impressive save of the night and as a result the game ended scoreless.

The league is now finally balanced as we head into Tuesday night’s massive game between Bohs and Rovers.

Bohemians: C.O’Connor, O.Heary (J.McGuinness 62’), M.Rossiter (B.Murphy 80’), B.Shelley, K.Oman, M.Quigley, R.Cretario, G.Cronin, P.Keegan, J.Byrne (A.Greene 86’), P.Madden
Subs not used: R.Higgins, G.Burke

Bray Wanderers: M.Gregg, D.Webster, S.Houston (C.Shields 45’), A.Mitchell, D.Prendergast, D.Zambra, D.Massey, G.Dempsey, D.O’Connor, G.Shaw, D. Doyle (S.O’Neill 73’)
Subs not used: B.Kane, I.Tuohy, N.Byrne

Referee: P.Sutton.
Attendance: 1,000 (estimate)
ExtraTime Man of the Match: Matt Gregg.