Ten man Wanderers earn point in Athlone

Athlone Town 0 Bray Wanderers 0

Athlone Town Stadium, First Division, 25 June 2021

Darren Cravens header is cleared off the line by Jamie Hollywood

Bray Wanderers eared a hard earned point in a game in which they played almost an hour with ten men after Ryan Graydon was shown a straight red card for kicking an Athlone player.

Wanderers made one change to the starting team from that which defeated UCD last week with two goal hero Joe Doyle starting in place of Gary Shaw. Athlone were without ex-Wanderer Daniel McKenna who missed out through suspension.

Wanderers were on top in the early stages with plenty of possession. Brandon Kavanagh fired a shot from just outside the area straight at Schlingermann on six minutes after good work by Joe Doyle in the left corner had set him up. A minute later, Doyle shot just wide from the left.

Athlone had a double let off following a Mark Byrne corner on the left. Firstly, Doyle’s header was cleared off the line and then Darren Craven’s follow up header was also cleared off the line by Jamie Hollywood.

Joe Doyle went close on the quarter hour with a long range shot which went just over the bar. Wanderers were reduced to ten men on 34 minutes when Graydon was dismissed. After the ball had gone dead over the end line Graydon tried to play it back to the keeper but caught an Athlone defender instead which resulted in him receiving a red card following Athlone complaints.

Brandon Kavanagh battles for possession

Brian Maher was called into action just before the break tipping over a shot from Kurtis Byrne from the edge of the area.

Wanderers found it hard in the second half to create chances as Athlone had more possession. Gary Shaw forced Schlingermann into tipping his goal bound header around the post following a succession of Wanderers corners from the right.

In the final piece of action Adam Wixted fired a long range shot over the Bray bar with two minutes remaining.

Athlone Town: 16 Micheal Schlingermann, 2 Aidan Friel, 3 Derek Daly, 5 Scott Delaney, 7 Adam Wixted, 8 Jamie Hollywood, 10 Kurtis Byrne, 13 David Brookes, 14 James Donna, 19 Brandon McCann, 21 Dylan Hand.

Substitutes: 30 Kayleum Rice (Gk), 12 Jack Reynolds,18 Oisin Duffy (for McCann, 80),20  Tumelo Tlou, 22 Shane Nealon, 24 Tristan Noack-Hofmann (for Delaney, 65).

Booked: Brookes (19)

Luka Lovic is action

Bray Wanderers: 1 Brian Maher; 8 Mark Byrne, 3 Dylan Barnett, 4 Andrew Quinn, 5 Aaron Barry; 6 Conor Clifford, 7 Ryan Graydon, 17 Luka Lovic, 11 Brandon Kavanagh; 9 Joe Doyle, 16 Darren Craven.

Substitutes; 25 Kian Clarke (Gk), 10 Gary Shaw (for Kavanagh, 70), 12 Dean O’Shea, 14 Richie O’Farrell (for Lovic, 76), 18 Sean Callan, 22 Steven Kinsella, 23 Glen Hollywood, 24 Cian Maher, 30 Jack Ross (Gk)

Booked: Ryan Graydon (Red card, 34)

Referee: Michael Connolly

Match Report: Michael Duffy

Pictures: Peter Minogue

Joe Doyle races free