Carlisle Grounds Wednesday 21st September
Bray Wanderers – 4
UCD – 0
A Sean Houston hat-trick combined with a dominating midfield performance saw Bray Wanderers easily past the Students at the Carlisle Grounds last Wednesday.
Bray displayed an immense amount of confidence going forward during the initial exchanges and it was no surprise when Bray broke the deadlock on eight minutes as a good move down the left allowed Jake Kelly to square the ball into the box where Houston was on hand to finish for his first of the night.
UCD responded strongly as they found some joy on the counter attack. Their best chance during this period came from a free kick on the left when a good reaction save from Darren Quigley was all that stood between Stephen Doyle’s header and the equaliser.
Gary Dempsey was the fulcrum for most of Bray’s attacking football and he almost opened the door for Shane O’Neill to score with a perfectly weighted through ball but the striker’s header was dealt with well by the ever alert Barron.
Bray seemed to lose some of their creative impetus as the half rolled on and the game became more balanced. UCD’s Paul Corry almost had the teams going in at halftime all square as his low, cure driven shot from the edge of the box had Darren Quigley beaten but luckily for the Bray netminder it struck the post.
If the halftime scoreline was a little too close for comfort for the Seagulls then Houston’s second of the night only three minutes after the restart would have settled them. This time, Houston rose highest to header home from Gary Dempsey’s corner.
After that Bray went into top gear, viagra dominating possession and pummelling the UCD back four. Dane Massey had a glorious chance to put the game beyond doubt when he broke forward and played a neat one-two with Houston but could only put his final effort over the bar.
Houston got his hat trick on 58 minutes when he was played through by Dempsey and coolly slotted his shot passed Barron.
Bray put in the fatal blow seven minutes later when Jake Kelly found himself on the end of a good move and the winger struck a confident left footed shot passed Barron to finish.
UCD finished strong despite the scoreline and the introduction of Chris Lyons added some energy up front. They managed to create a handful of chances, including a dipping volley from Graham Rusk, which just missed the target, but they couldn’t find a consolation goal before full time.
UCD: Ger Barron; Paul O’Conor, Mick Leahy, David O’Connor, Daniel Ledwith (Tomas Boyle, 61); Dean Marshall (Chris Lyons, 61), Robbie Creevy, Paul Corry (Barry McCabe, 69), Stephen Doyle, Darren Meenan; Graham Rusk.
Subs not used: Mark McGinley, Craig Mooney, Dean Clarke, Samir Belhout
Patrick Fleming
