Derry City 5 Bray Wanderers 1
The Brandywell, Premier Division, 16 March 2018
Wanderers were without the injured duo of Conor Kenna and Gary McCabe.
Derry took the lead on the quarter hour at the newly refurbished Brandywell when Nicky Low’s shot took a deflection off Rory Patterson to beat Dillion. Derry should have added to the lead two minutes later. From a Dillon save, the rebound fell to Ronan Hale who managed to put the ball outside the post with the goal gaping in front of him.
Bray improved at the start of the second half. Darragh Noone moved up front to join Greene. The move almost paid off ten minutes into the second period. Greene played Noone straight in, Nicky Low fouled Noone but referee MacGraith played advantage before the midfielder fouled Noone a second time bring him down. Low received a straight red card.
Within five minutes, Wanderers were two down. Lynch’s mistake let in Curtis for a run at goal and he duly lifted the ball over the advancing Dillon. On 64 minutes, Dan McKenna lost possession to Curtis and he was eventually brought down by the covering Hugh Douglas inside the area. McEneff scored from the resultant penalty
A goalmouth scramble in the Derry area saw three or four shots from Wanderers blocked before Derry eventually cleared.
Ronan Hale then scored the fourth on 76 minutes. Bray got a consolation on 81 minutes when Sean Heaney headed home from a corner. Derry added a fifth on 88 minutes through David Hopkirk.
Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Conor McDermott, Aaron McEneff, Rory Hale, Ronan Curtis, Rory Patterson, Eoin Toal, Darren Cole, Ronan Hale, Jack Doyle, Nicky Low. Subs: Dapo Kayode, Eric Grimes (gk), Gavin Peers, Cathal Farren, Ben Doherty (for Patterson 61), Scot Whiteside, David Hopkirk (for Hale 86), Niall Logue.
Bray Wanderers: Aaron Dillon, Dan McKenna, Hugh Douglas, Sean Heaney, Kevin Lynch, Ronan Coughlan, Paul O’Conor, John Sullivan, Cory Galvin, Aaron Greene, Darragh Noone. Subs: Jake Kelly (Galvin 72), Daniel Kelly (for Couglan 77), Ger Pender (for Greene 87), Dylan Hayes, Darragh Gibbons, Rhys Gorman, Evan Moran (GK).
Referee: Damien MacGraith
Attendance: 2,500 (estimated)
Match Report: Michael Duffy
