- Gareth Danaher
- Wed, Oct 24 2018
Gareth Danaher reports from the Carlisle Grounds
John Sullivan sealed all three points in the dying minutes as Bray Wanderers picked up shock win in their final home game of the season against Derry City.
Since Gary Cronin has taken over at Bray he hadn’t picked up a single win, but that all changed on Monday night at the seaside.
Dean Shiels opened the scoring for Derry early on but Sean Heaney headed an equaliser before half time, and Sullivan struck in injury time for a dramatic win.
Derry took the lead though early on in the 15th minute when Heaney’s back pass was sniffed out by the pacey Ronan Hale.
The Birmingham City loanee tapped the ball inside to Shiels and he finished well by chipping Bray shotstopper Evan Moran.
The Candystripes deserved the goal as they had been knocking on Bray’s door from the early minutes.
Darren Cole had already a goal ruled out for offside when he headed it into the Bray net after Shane McNamee had struck the crossbar.
Bray had their fair share of chances as Derry were quite open at the back. Cole had to clear off the line when Jake Ellis’ volley from Sean Harding’s cross beat Derry keeper Eric Grimes.
And on 26 minutes Bray equalised when defender Heaney was given the space to rise in the box and he headed Kevin Lynch's free-kick into the net.
It was mostly all Derry after that with the Candystripes having most of the goal action, and Moran made an excellent double save before half-time to deny Hale and McNamee.
In the second half, Moran was again called to make a fine one-on-one save from Ally Roy and again from Hale.
Derry were guilty of wasting a few decent chances, but it was level pegging until the final few minutes.
Grimes had to be at his best in stoppage time with Sean Harding’s free-kick being inches from going in.
But it wasn’t to be for Grimes as the free kick resulted in a corner, and Jake Kelly found Sullivan who headed it into the net from close range in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
It was clearly too much for one Bray fan who invaded the pitch and then with security coming close to catching him, jumped the advertising hoarding and dashed out the exit.
Bray Wanderers: Evan Moran; Cian Walsh, Conor Kenna, Sean Heaney, Kevin Lynch (Jamie Crilly 65); Sean Harding, Paul O’Conor, John Sullivan, Darragh Noone (Rhys Gorman 80); Ger Pender, Jake Ellis (Jake Kelly, 84).
Subs not used: Enda Minogue (gk), Dylan Hayes, Cian Maher, Dragos Mamaliga.
Booked: Sean Heaney (65).
Derry City: Eric Grimes; Jamie McDonagh, Eoin Toal, Darren Cole, Kevin McHattie; Shane McNamee (Aaron McEneff, 61), Aaron Splaine, Dean Shiels (Rory Hale, 67), Aidy Delap (Ben Fisk, 61); Ally Roy, Ronan Hale.
Subs not used: Nathan Gartside (gk), Gavin Peers, Dan Seabourne, Nicky Low.
Booked: Jamie McDonagh (90).
Referee: Neil Doyle.
Attendance: 342.
