- Gareth O'Reilly
- Fri, Mar 14 2014
A shock result took place at the Carlisle Grounds as Bray Wanderers recorded the first major upset of the 2014 season as they overcame the challenge of Sligo Rovers thanks to a solitary goal from Ciaran Byrne. The Seagulls remain undefeated in the 2014 season whilst Sligo suffer their first major upset of the new campaign.
The first half began with an early Danny North chance that the centre forward scuffed allowing Redmond to make a comfortable save. Just minutes later it was the star man of the first half Eric Odhiambo that also failed to capitalise on some overall good Sligo Rovers play as he wasted his opportunity to get the Sligo account up and running.
As the we passed the half way mark in the opening period Alan Keane committed a cynical push on the edge of the box resulting in Graham Kelly being given the opportunity to open the scoring but his free kick was straight at Gary Rogers. Keane will have been happy to have escaped the incident with just a yellow card.
The best chance of the first half fell to the home side as Ciaran Byrne played his strike partner on the night Graham Kelly through on goal after a swift counter attacking move by the Seagulls. Kelly controlled the ball with a nice touch but failed to steer the ball past Rogers as the Sligo net minder got down sharply to keep the game scoreless.
Graham Kelly would have two more chances as the half wore on first from a free kick and then just on the brink of half time when he spotted Rogers off his line on the counter attack. However the attempt from Graham Kelly was poor as he sliced his shot into the arms of the awaiting goalkeeper.
The second half was only started sixty seconds old when Ciaran Byrne's deflected effort ended up in the back of the net to give Bray an unexpected lead. Jake Kelly will be the man that will be credited with the assist after some calamitous defending from Sligo as they allowed the ball to bounce twice in the box before Kelly picked it up at the back post.
After the goal it was all Bray Wanderers as Jake Kelly had two shots in close procession. The first was easily saved by Rogers but less than a minute later Jake Kelly went one step closer as his shot from outside the box scraped the cross bar on its way over.
In what was turning out to be a very poor second half a goal line scramble was the only thing that allowed us to confirm that the supporters in the stadium still had a heart beat with the travelling support especially unhappy that referee Graham Kelly did not point to the spot for what they believed to be a clear hand ball offence.
As we ticked over the ninety minute mark a number of crosses from the right wing played in by Alan Keane and substitute Kieran Djilali yielded a blank despite the bit o red having plenty of bodies occupying the Bray penalty area that killer instinct just escaped them.
Then in injury time a good move down the left wing by Aaron Greene ended in a cross that was just marginally too high for new Sligo signing Paul O'Connor. That was it as the book was closed on Bray's first victory over Sligo Rovers since 2009.
Bray Wanderers: Shane Redmond; Dean Zambra, Dave Webster, Adam Mitchell (Niall Cooney 27), Robert Maloney; Adam Hanlon, Graham Kelly, Eric McGill, Shane Byrne (Gary Curran 87), Jake Kelly; Ciaran Byrne (Dave Scully 64).
Subs Not Used: Stephen McGuinness, Jamie McGlynn, Philip Nolan, Shane O'Neill.
Booked: Ciaran Byrne (44)
Sligo Rovers: Gary Rodgers; Alan Keane, Evan McMillan, Kalen Spillane, Danny Ledwith (Aaron Greene 76); John Russell (Seamus Connelly 38), Paul O'Conor, David Cawley (Kieran Djilali 63), Ross Gaynor; Danny North, Eric Odihiambo.
Subs Not Used: Richard Brush, Sean Maguire, Raffaele Cretaro, Jake Dykes.
Booked: Alan Keane (13)
Referee: Graham Kelly
Attendance: 550 (estimate)
Extratime.ie Man of The Match: Jake Kelly (Bray Wanderers)
