Cork City 1 Bray Wanderers 1
A much depleted Bray squad left the Bishopstown Stadium with a deserved U19 LOI Academy point.
The Wicklow side went to Munster missing a large number of players for a variety of reasons. But the six U17 players added to the squad performed admirably on Sunday afternoon in the Group A fixture.
One of those players – Lewis Jacobs – put an early effort over the bar when he turned sharply in the box but had too much elevation on his strike.
Wanderers’ goalkeeper Jamie Molloy was then called into action to claw away an awkward effort from under his crossbar.
Bray were forced into a change after 38 minutes when one U17 player Caleb O’Neill was forced off and replaced by another from the same squad – Alex Baines.
In a crazy spell of the last two minutes of the first half, Jacobs hit the post and from the rebound after Thomas Morgan hit the other upright.
From the resulting corner, the ball was cleared to the edge of the box and left-back Zack Nolan smashed a thunderous right footed effort into the net.
Early in the second half, the visitors had chances to increase their lead.
Roland Olakanye cut inside but his effort was well held by City netminder Rory Moloney.
Then following a neat interchange of passes soon after, Morgan fired wide of the target.
These misses were to prove costly as Cork drew level midway through the half, with a curling shot from inside the box by substitute Matthew Murray.
Late on, the away outfit pushed for a winner. But despite efforts from skipper Jack Keogh and Jack Murray, Wanderers had to settle for a point.
Bray Wanderers: Jamie Molloy; Joshua Kerr, Caleb O’Neill, Leon Ajala, Zach Nolan; Jack Kehoe, Thomas Morgan; Jack Murray, Hayden Roche, Lewis Jacobs; Roland Olakanye.
Subs: Harry Sherlock, Alex Baines, Phillip Cooney, Daniel Chukwu, David Winkler.
* The U19’s return to Cork next week to take on Cobh Ramblers. Kick-off at St. Colman’s Park is set for 3.00pm on Sunday May 7.
U19 captain Jack Kehoe and goalscorer Zach Nolan.
