Bray Wanderers 1 (Barnett 7)
Athlone Town 2 (Byrne 11, 14)
Carlisle Grounds, First Division, 16 April 2021
First Division league leaders Athlone Town came from a goal down to record a victory over Bray Wanderers who are still seeking their first league win of the season. All of the goals came in a frantic opening quarter of an hour.
Bray made one change to the starting eleven from the team that drew with UCD last week. Conor Clifford returned in place of Richie O’Farrell.
Bray had strong appeals for a penalty in the first minute when Ryan Graydon went down in the area under a challenge, but referee Alan Carey waved play on. Wanderers opened the scoring in the seventh minute. A cross from the right came to Dylan Barnett on the left of the box and he rifled the ball to the net despite Schlingermann getting a hand to it.
Athlone were level four minutes later. A cross from the right by Aidan Friel was turned home by Kurtis Byrne from close range despite the best efforts of Brian Maher to keep it out. Just on the quarter hour, another cross from the right, this time from Adam Wixted found Byrne in the area and he found the net from close range.
Dylan Barnett blocked a shot from Wixted on 25 minutes. Two minutes later, Aaron Barry picked out Brandon Kavanagh, but he fired over from long range. Just before the break, good play between Kavanagh and Grayson ended with the latter firing just wide from long range.
Just past the hour mark, Steven Kinsella cut in from the right but shot straight at Schlingermann. Mark Byrne deflected a Doona shot wide on 68 minutes. Wanderers had a great chance to equalise on 77 minutes. Ryan Graydon ran down the right wing and his cross was met at the back post by Luka Lovic who scooped his shot wide in front of goal.
A skirmish erupted three minutes from time which resulted in Ryan Graydon receiving a straight red for his involvement in the incident. A minute from time, Darren Craven shot over following a Kavanagh corner from the right.
Bray Wanderers: 1 Brian Maher; 8 Mark Byrne, 3 Dylan Barnett, 4 Andrew Quinn, 5 Aaron Barry; 6 Conor Clifford, 7 Ryan Graydon, 16 Darren Craven, 11 Brandon Kavanagh; 17 Luka Lovic, 22 Steven Kinsella.
Substitutes; 25 Kian Clarke (Gk), 9 Joe Doyle (for Kinsella, 79), 10 Gary Shaw, 12 Dean O’Shea, 18 Sean Callan, 19 Darragh Lynch, 20 Charlie Gallagher, 23 Glen Hollywood, 24 Cian Maher.
Booked: Clifford (87), Maher (87)
Sent off: Graydon (87)
Athlone Town: 16 Micheal Schlingermann, 2 Aidan Friel, 3 Derek Daly, 4 Daniel McKenna, 6 Killian Cantwell, 7 Adam Wixted, 8 Jamie Hollywood, 10 Kurtis Byrne, 11 Stephen Meaney, 14 James Doona, 21 Dylan Hand:
Substitutes: 1 Kayleum Rice (Gk), 5 Scott Delaney, 13 David Brooks, 15 Jonny Carlin, 18 Oisin Duffy (for Friel, 60), 19 Brandon McCann (for Hollywood, 86), 22 Jack Watson, 24 Tristan Noack Hofmann, 28 Shane Barnes (for Meaney, 72)
Booked: Daly (42), Doona (45), Barnes (87).
Match Report: Michael Duffy
Pictures: Peter Minogue
