Derry City 0 Bray Wanderers 5
Premier Division, Maginn Park, Buncrana, 22 September 2017.
Bray Wanderers extended their unbeaten league run to five games with this emphatic win over Derry City in the race for a European spot. A fourth place finish in the premier division will earn a place in the Europa league qualifying stages next season provided Limerick FC don’t win the FAI cup.
Rory Patterson had a chance on 14 minutes after Ronan Curtis played him in but his effort was blocked by Conor Kenna. Wanderers took the lead on 20 minutes when Aaron Greene latched onto Gary McCabe’s pass and lifted the ball over Gerard Doherty.
Peter Cherrie made a save on 30 minutes to deny Aaron Barry’s close range strike. Wanderers doubled their lead on 35 minutes when Darragh Noone slotted home from an Aaron Greene pass. Two minutes later the visitors added a third when Ryan Brennan broke past the defence to fire to the roof of the net.
Early in the second half, Cherrie saved from Patterson’s close-range strike. Wanderers added a fourth on 56 minutes, Brennan’s initial strike came back off the post and Gary McCabe fired home the rebound for his 15th league goal of the season. Gary thus became the highest goalscorer for Bray Wanderers in a premier division season beating the previous record of 14 held by Jason Byrne (2001/2 season) and Jake Kelly (2010)
On 79 minutes, Greene added his second and Wanderers fifth when he broke clear to fire past Doherty.
In the final minute Aaron McEneff blasted a penalty over the Bray crossbar to complete a miserable night for the home side.
This was Bray Wanderers biggest ever win over Derry City and third league victory over Derry this season.
Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Conor McDermott, Eoin Toal, Aaron Barry, Ben Doherty; Aaron McEneff, Nicky Low, Barry McNamee; Jamie McIntyre, Rory Patterson, Ronan Curtis.
Subs: Harry Monaghan, Eric Grimes (gk), Michael Place, Cathal Farren, Jozef Dolný (for Curtis 57), Sam Todd, Lukas Schubert (for McIntyre 70).
Bray Wanderers: Peter Cherrie; Keith Buckley, Conor Kenna, Tim Clancy, Karl Moore, Darragh Noone; John Sullivan, Ryan Brennan, Gary McCabe; Jason Marks; Aaron Greene.
Subs: Kevin Lynch (for Marks 76), Hugh Douglas (for Kenna 67), Ger Pender (for Greene 82), Jake Ellis, Ger Pender, Luke Rossiter, Lee Steacy.
Referee: Neil Doyle
Match report: Michael Duffy