Bray Wanderers 4-0 Sligo Rovers
Pat Devlin’s Bray Wanderers fired four goals for the second successive game to down ten-man Sligo Rovers at the Carlisle Grounds on Friday night and send out a warning to their First Division rivals that they will take plenty of stopping in the race for promotion this season.
Following the defeat to UCD at the Wicklow venue a fortnight ago, Devlin had slammed his players for producing the worst performance of his two decades in charge of the club.
And they have responded admirably to that criticism, slamming Cobh Ramblers on a 4-1 scoreline a week ago and easing to a facile defeat of Sligo on Friday night.
Ciaran Ryan fired a goal in either half, Kevin Grogan gave his side the perfect start to the second period with a goal inside 60 seconds of the restart, while Kieran "Tarzan" O’Brien rounded off the scoring with his second goal in as many games.
And while this victory was thoroughly impressive, the task was made a deal easier by the sending-off of Sligo’s Barbadian international goalkeeper Alvan Rouse after less than half an hour when the game was still goalless. Replacement Ken O’Malley was sent on, with big English striker Darren Jack, back in the side after injury, called ashore.
Whereas Bray boss Devlin made four changes to the side that lost against the Students, he kept faith with the same starting XI for the visit of Don O’Riordan’s side, meaning there was again no place for central defender and last season’s club Player of the Year Wesley Charles, with Stephen Gifford continuing alongside Jody Lynch.
The form of strike pairing O’Brien and Grogan will also be a source of pleasure for the Seagulls fans - the pair have now scored four goals in two games together, with O’Brien’s experience a perfect foil for the skill of Grogan, who has made an excellent return to the game after an 18-month long injury-enforced early retirement.
It should and could have been more as well, there keeper should have been sent off before he was, tarzan clean throgh and knock the ball by him and was brought down, i was no more than 10 feet away and there was defo major contact. Gormley burried the crossbar as well with a stunning free kick and several other good chances went astray. A good preformance but we can play better. we didnt have a full strength team out either with Fox and Charles (possibly Zayed) to come back in as well.
