Finn Harps 3 Bray Wanderers 0
It was a case of the away day blues for Bray’s U17s who never really laid a glove on their Finn Harps counterparts.
In an EA SPORTS MU17 LOI Academy – Tier Two (North) match moved from Finn Park to Curragh Killygordan, the long trip from Wicklow to Donegal proved fruitless for the visitors who went down to a 3-0 defeat on Saturday afternoon.
Harps took the lead after six minutes when a clearance from away goalkeeper David Winkler fell to Tiernan Ruddy, who returned the ball immediately and put it over the retreating Bray custodian.
The home team doubled their lead shortly before half time as Conor McGranaghan’s corner was finished by Daragh Coyle.
Despite showing some improvement in the second period by the away side, the home went three up from another corner. This time, Harps skipper Daniel Cunningham headed in at the back post.
After that, defender Alex Baines had two headers for Wanderers but couldn’t find the target.
The closest the Seasiders came to pulling one back came from a good move down the left wing when Phil Cooney played the ball to the underlapping Ronan Dawson. But Ethan Cheese just failed to convert from the cut back.
One positive to take from the game was the introduction of U15 goalkeeper Alex Forde who put in an assured performance on his U17 debut.
Bray Wanderers: David Winkler; Ronan Langan, Alex Baines, Alain Kizenga, Jack Nolan; Paddy Kildee-Doolan, Ethan Cheese; Dylan Ryan, Rhys Knight, Philip Cooney; Adam Reid.
Subs: Ronan Dawson, Aidan Kane, Roddy Cotter, Max Colbert, Alex Forde.