- Gareth O'Reilly
- Fri, May 30 2014
Anyone who has ever been involved in a badly organised game of five-a-side on their local field will know how the 258 in attendance on Friday night felt after watching UCD and Bray Wanderers play out a dull nil-all draw.
The Students managed to move up to 10th position whilst Bray retained their 7th position in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table.
It was one of the slowest first halves of action likely to be seen this season in a League of Ireland game as less than five shots took place inside the opening 45 minutes.
Belhout had the home side’s opening chance of the game when he was played through by his captain Robbie Benson. Belhout took one touch before smashing the ball straight at the onrushing Stephen McGuiness.
After that, bar a volley from Michael Barker, the next chance did not take place until an entire 24 minutes after Belhout's effort. It fell to Bray as McGlynn delivered a cross into the box that went all the way through to David Cassidy who volleyed powerfully wide.
Something actually happened fifteen minutes into the second half when Ciaran Byrne managed to put the ball into the net but linesman Matthew Farrell ruled it out for offside.
Minutes later a foul on Chris Mulhall resulted in a rather aggressive gathering of players from both sides on the pitch in which heads were swung and bodies were pushed. The result, according to referee Rob Rogers, was to show a yellow card to both Graham Kelly and Chris Mulhall.
Finally UCD seemed to get into their rhythm after that incident as Robbie Benson delivered a beautifully placed free kick that was met by the head of Robbie Creevy but McGuinness scrambled across his goal to save acrobatically.
Jake Kelly was only just on the pitch as his first touch resulted in a 20-yard half-volley that O'Donnell did well to parry away to safety.
With just minutes left Akinade attempted to grab a winner. The substitute took the ball down in the box before turning and letting fly. His shot however rebounded straight off Hugh Douglas who saved what looked to be a certain goal.
There was one more chance for a player to get their name on the scoresheet as Cillian Morrison rounded McGuinness but failed to ultimately steer the ball past the recovering Bray defenders from an acute angle.
With a total of 27 seconds left on the clock at the end of injury time Hugh Douglas was dismissed for a second bookable offense after bringing down Akinade. In truth the UCD defender was lucky that it turned out to be a second yellow and not a straight red. The free kick that resulted found Adam Hanlon in the box but the winger's effort was saved fantastically by O'Donnell from six yards out.
And that was all she wrote or in this case didn't write as the game ended much too the relief of everyone who had the misery of witnessing it.
UCD: Conor O'Donnell; Gareth Matthews, Hughie Douglas, Jamie Kavanagh (Ian Ryan 54), Mark Langtry; Michael Barker (Cillian Morrison 78), Robbie Creevy, Barry McCabe, Robbie Benson, Chris Mulhall; Samir Belhout
Subs Not Used: Niall Corbet (gk), Michael Scott, Thomas O'Halloran, Dwayne Wilson, Gary Burke.
Booked: Mullhall (66), Douglas (68).
Sent Off: Douglas (92).
Bray Wanderers: Stephen McGuinness: Niall Cooney, Dave Webster, Eric McGill, Robert Maloney; Dean Zambra, David Cassidy, Graham Kelly, Ciaran Byrne (Ismahil Akinade 61), Jamie McGlynn (Jake Kelly 78), Adam Hanlon.
Subs not used: Shane Redmond (gk), Shane Byrne, Shane O'Connor, Michael Brown.
Booked: Webster (45), G Kelly (66), E McGill (78).
Referee: Rob Rogers
Attendance: 256
Extratime.ie Man of The Match: Graham Kelly (Bray Wanderers)
