UCD 3 Bray Wanderers 2

Well we won the forgotten derby by the odd goal in five.
Bray lined out with ex-College stalwarts Jody Lynch and Hugh Davey in defence and these were backed up by Robbie Dunne on the bench and Kevin Grogan who was not asked to tog out on this occasion.They probably could have done with him.
The game was fairly even throughout but UCD did begin well and
opened the scoring through Stephen Hurley after 16 minutes.
Kieran "Tarzan" O'Brien swung through a jungle of players to equalize on 26 minutes to leave the half-time score 1-1.
Bray took the lead during a purple patch for the visitors through Eamon Zayed on the hour mark. Pat McWalter switched into the forwards after the break equalised shortly afterwards and grabbed his second of both the game and the season on 75 minutes to seal a hard-earned three points for College.
Sorry it's not a comprehensive match report but was kinda busy during the game.

U.C.D.;- Darren Quigley; Conor Kenna, Brian Shortall ( Aidan Lynch), Alan McNally, Mick O'Donnell;Stephen Hurley, Gary Dicker, Tony McDonnell, Pat McWalter; Robbie Martin, Paul Whitmarsh (Conor Sammon)

BRAY: O'Connor; Tresson, Charles, Lynch, Davey; James, O'Reilly (Eddie Gormley), Keogh, Fox; O'Brien(Conor Sinnott), Zayed

Sorry Gents. U2. Wasn't worth it. Wish I was in the Park.

I'm delighted. Our 4th win in a row in all competitions. First back to back wins in the league this season. Second successive week we've fought back in the last 30 mins from behind to win a game. Great fighting spirit and finally we win a game we should expect to win! Paddy works very hard, delighted to see him grab a brace. We're in a strong enough league position now. But it's tight and a few defeats or a few wins could make a hell of a difference to our position. Longford have proved Cork can still be held as we proved ourselves at the Cross a few months ago. I hope we can take something from the game next week and build a good league position from there.

From the score, it probably looks like it was a cracking match but in person it was far from it! The weather probably didn't help but it was one of the most unengaging games I've seen in a long time.

We were all over Bray for the first 20 minutes or so and after we scored I thought we were going to go on and win the game by a few goals. Maybe if they hadn't equalised and got a bit of confidence, we would have but they converted one of the scrappy chances that they got after some poor defending left O'Brien enough space at the edge of the box to lob the ball over Quigley. Bray pushed on a bit more after that and had much more of the possession for the rest of the half and for the first 15 minute of the second.

It wasn't particularly surprising that they took the lead but the goal they got was a dreadful one for us to concede. Quigley seemed to be badly positioned (although the defence didn't do much to protect him!) and the shot trickled past him and eventually in off the far post. It looked like we were going to lose at that stage (and probably by another goal against any decent team). After we equalised almost straight from the kick off though we seemed to cop on to the fact that Bray weren't that good and had the better of the game after that. McWalter took the winner well, a good ball through left him a clear run on goal and he finished it well.

Just reading the post above makes it sound exciting too but the quality of football was very poor; far too much aimless hoofing (one-touch, end-to-end football as someone put it :D ) and bad passing. Robbir Martin was wasted on the wing IMO and Whitmarsh didn't look up to it, although I'm mindful of the fact that I thought the same about Swan when he signed!

What kind of crowd was there Schumi? Whitmarsh did set up Pat's 2nd goal according to 11 a side. Not the end of the world if he doesn't work out, we have a fair few strikers. Also is Dupuy injured now?

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

What kind of crowd was there Schumi?

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Woeful, 517 by my count. The weather was terrible though, I'd say that put a good few off.

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Also is Dupuy injured now?

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Must be, he wasn't on the bench even. :(

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Originally Posted by Schumi

Woeful, 517 by my count. The weather was terrible though, I'd say that put a good few off.

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Disastrous for what we'd consider a derby. :eek: Was it just ourselves who let the attendence down or did they bring little? What kind of weather are we talking about? I'm sweltering in around 30 degrees heat here at the moment. :cool:

It was a terrible match. I think yez had more better chances but we should have held on when we took the lead. It was woeful from us. Congrats for the win. Yez should stay up if you play like that more.

This match is causing arguments on the Bray forum. :mad:
Absolute disgrace

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

Disastrous for what we'd consider a derby. :eek: Was it just ourselves who let the attendence down or did they bring little? What kind of weather are we talking about? I'm sweltering in around 30 degrees heat here at the moment. :cool:

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We had way more fans there. Just over half the AIB Stand was full of Bray fans. :D

PS The AIB Stand wasn't full.

Thanks Frank. I reckon we'll both be staying up anyway though.

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Originally Posted by superfrank

We had way more fans there. Just over half the AIB Stand was full of Bray fans. :D

PS The AIB Stand wasn't full.

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That would mean about 400 Bray fans, no? :confused:

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

That would mean about 400 Bray fans, no? :confused:

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Maybe, I'm not too good with numbers. There seemed to be a good few of us. I'd say over 300 but, as I said, I'm not good with numbers.

About 400 in the stand in total, probably about half and half I'd say. Terrible home turn out, probably not much lower than normal Bray crowd (not sure how many they brought to previous games though).

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Originally Posted by superfrank

It was a terrible match. I think yez had more better chances but we should have held on when we took the lead.

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

What kind of weather are we talking about?

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Heavy rain, not as bad as Limerick last year but still pretty bad.

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I'm sweltering in around 30 degrees heat here at the moment. :cool:

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:mad:

Damien Dupuy was in France attending a funeral of a family member according to one of the papers. Apparently that was news to one club official.

P.S. The Star estimates obviously do not over estimate all the time. Their reporter had the attendance down as 400. By the way that is the smallest attendance for a UCD -Bray Wanderers game in Belfield for a long long time.

On the subject of attendances at the game.
U2 obviously affected the crowd last night ( Colie for example was missing).
The weather was terrible and the rain began falling around the time people within striking distance of the ground might have been considering leaving their houses.
Maybe Pat Dolan is right after all when he says Summer soccer has not done much, if anything , for improvement in attendances! :confused:

Whitmarsh was pretty awful and Tony Mac was distinctly average, even by his standards. I hardly noticed Robbie Martin until he missed that sitter late on.

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

Kieran "Tarzan" O'Brien swung through a jungle of players to equalize on 26 minutes to leave the half-time score 1-1.

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:rolleyes:

Thats the Cheezeist pun I've heard for a while

Nice One :)

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Originally Posted by el tk

Whitmarsh was pretty awful and Tony Mac was distinctly average, even by his standards. I hardly noticed Robbie Martin until he missed that sitter late on.

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Let me see Whitmarsh has played two games in the First team so far and we have won them both and he set up the third goal. :confused:
P.s. Even an average Tony Mac is better than some players at the top of their game :ball:

517 is shocking! Got 640 last year in the First Division!

Was the weather that bad? 'Twas lovely up in Cavan all weekend!

Damo was given compassionate leave by Pete Mahon - it was well-documented (UCD website, the Mirror, Aertel), so I'm amazed the UCD committee member didn't get wind of it!!

Five goals in a UCD-Bray game though - that's the most ever (only equalled by the League Cup game, when if Barry Andrews hadn't been playing, there'd only have been two goals... :) ). Be thankful for something!

Still, seven games unbeaten now, eleven points off the bottom, finally beating teams in the bottom half and getting better all the time, it seems. Got to be happy with that.

Incidentally, Brian de Salvo on RTÉ radio described Paul Whitmarsh as like "Paul Doolin on a bad hair day"! :D

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

Let me see Whitmarsh has played two games in the First team so far and we have won them both and he set up the third goal. :confused::

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That's great about the team winning with Whitmarsh, it doesn't change the fact that his overall contribution came to about touching the ball twice in the first 10 minutes and then passing the ball to McWalter.

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

P.s. Even an average Tony Mac is better than some players at the top of their game :ball:

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That's just not true, I don't know many players at the top of their game who spend on game missing as many chances as they can and the next just ambling around with a passing interest in the football.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

517 is shocking! Got 640 last year in the First Division!

Was the weather that bad? 'Twas lovely up in Cavan all weekend!

Damo was given compassionate leave by Pete Mahon - it was well-documented (UCD website, the Mirror, Aertel), so I'm amazed the UCD committee member didn't get wind of it!!

Five goals in a UCD-Bray game though - that's the most ever (only equalled by the League Cup game, when if Barry Andrews hadn't been playing, there'd only have been two goals... :) ). Be thankful for something!

Still, seven games unbeaten now, eleven points off the bottom, finally beating teams in the bottom half and getting better all the time, it seems. Got to be happy with that.

Incidentally, Brian de Salvo on RTÉ radio described Paul Whitmarsh as like "Paul Doolin on a bad hair day"! :D

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Well you are part of the reason the crowd was so pathetic by your absence and yes the weather was cat! :D

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Originally Posted by el tk

Whitmarsh was pretty awful and Tony Mac was distinctly average, even by his standards. I hardly noticed Robbie Martin until he missed that sitter late on.

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Three goals in his previous three games I think says it all about Tony Mac's contributions to the club this season! :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by el tk

Tony Mac was distinctly average, even by his standards.

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I take it by this your none too impressed with our captain on a regular basis? :confused:

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

getting better all the time, it seems.

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Easy knowing you weren't at the game!

I wasn't at the match but i was delighted to see Pat McWalther get the two winning goals. Although ive been at very few of the matches this season i still think McWalther is the most underated player on the UCD team.
His workrate and movement are both excellent and he does all the simple things well. The only thing lacking from his game in recent months has been a few goals so it was great to see him address that the other night.

It must have been like rubbing salt into Bray wounds that it was the two wicklow lads that got the goals for ucd.

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Originally Posted by student

I wasn't at the match but i was delighted to see Pat McWalther get the two winning goals. Although ive been at very few of the matches this season i still think McWalther is the most underated player on the UCD team.
His workrate and movement are both excellent and he does all the simple things well. The only thing lacking from his game in recent months has been a few goals so it was great to see him address that the other night.

It must have been like rubbing salt into Bray wounds that it was the two wicklow lads that got the goals for ucd.

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No really, the boys who scored has no connections with Bray at all so there was it was'nt like Robbie Doyle, Jason Byrne or Paul Keegan scoring against us.

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Originally Posted by student

I wasn't at the match but i was delighted to see Pat McWalther get the two winning goals. Although ive been at very few of the matches this season i still think McWalther is the most underated player on the UCD team.
His workrate and movement are both excellent and he does all the simple things well. The only thing lacking from his game in recent months has been a few goals so it was great to see him address that the other night.

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I completely agree with you. He's a fierce hard worker. I'm still not sure what his best position is though.

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

I take it by this your none too impressed with our captain on a regular basis? :confused:

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Precisely, he's tall but he doesn't get up to head the ball, he's not an inspirational player who fires up others, at times he just lets the game go right past him without getting involved.

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Originally Posted by el tk

Precisely, he's tall but he doesn't get up to head the ball, he's not an inspirational player who fires up others, at times he just lets the game go right past him without getting involved.

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Eh, Tony Mac? Scored 2 headers this year already from midfield. He wins every header that comes near him & keeps the team going when they're on the back foot.

Anything bad to be said about Tony's aerial ability or inspiration to the team is just not right.

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

I'm still not sure what his best position is though.

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Definitely up front - scores more from there and creates far more problems with his runs.

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Originally Posted by Schumi

Easy knowing you weren't at the game!

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Maybe, but hey - rather a poor 3-2 win than a poor 1-0 defeat! Still, every result in the second round of matches has been at least as good as in the first round...if we can start beating the lower teams, then, with our record against the higher teams so far... :)

First of Tony is not that good at winning headers, that's why the experiment with him at centre back a few years back was ended. For a tall bloke he's got great footwork although I still haven't been overly impressed this season.

As for Pat, yes he did well scoring the too goals the other night but we are still talking about a first division striker and certainly not a Premier division winger. Defending on the night was woeful and it showed.

While Whitmarsh was useful against a disinterested (albeit near full strength0 rovers the sheer inability to match a side playing at Bray's pace (even with defending that bad) showed him up big time.

I don't know. I think I am with Colie on Tony Mac. I've seen people here before say he doesn't win much headers but he seems to be winning them any time I am there. I think the difference was telling when he was in centre back this season, not because the defending was poor but because his absence was sorely missed in midfield. He seems to break down the opposition attack and intercepts balls. He doesn't seem to be the greatest at driving the attack forward but I reckon he needs a partner who will run beyond the forwards to link up midfield and attack.

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

He seems to break down the opposition attack and intercepts balls. He doesn't seem to be the greatest at driving the attack forward but I reckon he needs a partner who will run beyond the forwards to link up midfield and attack.

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Think that's not far off alright. He seems to get in a lot of tackles and breaks play up and can run with the ball when he wants! :) We need an attacking mid alongside him though - someone like Seán Finn...

Think Whitmarsh is still getting up to match fitness - playing with Belgrove, he'd presumably be out of season before being signed last week (the U-21s game against Garda was his debut). Seem to remember Derek Swan being the exact same! Would give him some time yet.

The point on Paul Byrne is true as well though - he wins a ridiculous amount of headers when he's up front!

I know this might sound blasphemous as he sounds like a cult figure but who was Derek Swan? Keep in mind I am only a recent proper supporter.

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

who was Derek Swan?

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The oldest man since sliced bread. He came out of retirement a while back to play a season or two with UCD.

We even had special hats comissioned for the occasion.

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Originally Posted by Bald Student

The oldest man since sliced bread. He came out of retirement a while back to play a season or two with UCD.

We even had special hats comissioned for the occasion.

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Derek Swan began his eircom league career with Home Farm in the mid 1980's and moved to Bohemians. He became a bit of a hero at Dalymount ending up top scorer for the club a number of times. Port Vale pounced to sign him and he spent a season or two over there. Came home and was signed by Shamrock Rovers for a while. A brief spell North of the border with Newry (I think this is all from memory folks) followed and then he rejoined Bohs. He then retired.

Martin Moran coaxed him out of retirement towards the end of 2000 and he got 5 League goals for us in his brief spell at Belfield before retiring for Good at the end of the 2000/2001 Season. He returned to his dayjob in behind the scenes technical type stuff for RTE.
During his brief time at Belfield he became a firm favourite.. a UCD striker who scores consistently.... :D and earned his own chant !


Ninho there's only Swan-inho there's only Swan-inho there's only Swan-inho

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

he got 5 League goals...a UCD striker who scores consistently.... :D

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Don't think those two quite go together! He scored seven goals in 22 games all told (including one in the League Cup and one in the FAI Cup). As goals per game rates go, it's actually one of the best in a UCD jersey - per my stats (which have gaps in them before 1998 admittedly) only behind Paul Whitmarsh, Paul Byrne and Willie, Robbie and Derek Doyle. You may note that three of them have hardly played for us at all, of course...!

Incidentally, for a photo, go to the old UCD Supporters' website. He's somewhere in the first photo... :)