Bray Wanderers' first win in four years over UCD extended their unbeaten home run to 18 games - and one defeat (to UCD last season) in 34 - but in truth UCD will have left the Carlisle wondering how they failed to pick up at least one, if not all three, points from an open enough game.
UCD made two changes from the 2-0 defeat to Drogheda the previous week - Conor Kenna failed a fitness test while Brian Shortall was dropped; Mick O'Donnell moved to left-back, with Anto Murphy coming in at right-wing and Podge McWalter moving out to the left; while Stephen Hurley came in in the centre of defence. Hurley was particularly impressive in bringing the ball out of defence and indeed was eager to join the attack whenever possible.
Bray had the upper hand in a fairly poor first half which saw far too much random hoofing from both sides. Darren Quigley was called into action midway through the half with an excellent block low to his left, with the rebound being blocked wide, while another Bray chance was scuffed harmlessly - almost amusingly - wide.
At the other end, UCD offered fairly little early on, and though they did have the ball in the net, the whistle had long gone. Too many high balls meant Robbie Martin and Damien Dupuy struggled to get into the game.
When the opener came, there was more than a touch of good fortune about it. Pip Keogh's shot was going harmessly wide until it took a deflection to end up in the path of Wes Charles, whose finish from ten yards out was clinical.
UCD upped their game after that and got into a series of threatening positions - a few throws in line with the area mainly - without ever making O'Connor in the Bray goal work, and at half-time, Bray were probably about worth their lead.
UCD came out all guns blazing for the second half, which was almost one-way traffic. Unfortunately, the build up was all too often as slow as a one-way stream of tractors going down the M50. Three minutes in, Damien Dupuy went close with a scissors kick, and he tried his luck from distance a few minutes later only to be even further off target. Bray's game was falling apart at this stage, as far too many clearances were either skied or found touch; in particular, Chris O'Connor was wasteful with many goal-kicks.
UCD were starting to get the ball down more and play through the middle, but the final ball was often overhit. Anto Murphy saw plenty of the ball down the wing, but UCD posed little danger in the air from either his crosses or Mick O'Donnell's corners, of which there were several. One in particular lead to a scramble at the back post, which resulted in Anto Murphy going to ground, but the referee booked the UCD midfielder for diving.
Bray occasionally threatened on the break, and ironically had the better chances to score. Darren Quigley reacted well to turn away a drive from the edge of the area, with Alan Mahon throwing himself in the way of the rebound; from the corner, Quigley was on hand to parry away a bullet header.
UCD kept attacking, however, and their best chance of an equaliser came a quarter of an hour from the end, when a cross from the left found Damien Dupuy six yards out, but he put his free header wide when it looked easier to score. Though Dupuy was not to find the net, it certainly wasn't for want of trying, as minutes later he was through on goals - he just about beat O'Connor to the ball only to lift his shot over the bar. Both players were down for treatment after they clashed into each other in the incident.
Late on, Bray resorted to timewasting to hold on to their lead - Wes Charles went down with a leg injury in injury time, only to get up immediately the ref made it clear that he wasn't going to hold up the game for him; not content with that, Charles stood in front of the free-kick taker to replace a divot in the ground - fortunately, the ref had the sense to add another minute on for this, but it was one of those games where the College could have played another hour or two and still not scored.
Bray, it must be said, looked a very ordinary side, particularly in the second half when their passing was nothing short of woeful, and UCD will be particularly disappointed to have dropped three points to them. However, performance-wise, it was a marked improvement on the Drogheda game the previous week, and if Bray can draw in Cork, why not UCD?!
UCD - Quigley; Mahon, O'Donnell, Hurley, McNally; McDonnell, Anto Murphy, Dicker, McWalter; Martin, Dupuy. Subs not used - Gannon, Shortall, Adrian Murphy, Kierans, Gallagher
Att - 1500
Thats a very fair assessment of the game
In the second half UCD played some nice one touch football and triangles without much penetration, Dupay's finishing was poor though. Darren Quigley was excellent.
Bray looked tired in the second half particulary Stephen Fox who should have only played about 60mins.
How he missed that header, I dunno?
Some croud of young scangers down there I must say. The good fans seem fairly solid tho.
"I always likened him to a Rolls Royce. You just used him once a week & he'd be flawless"
Townsend on McGrath
Pineapple, How many efforts did UCD actually get on target, not just wide, just over, but actually on target?
Honest! I am not a secret Tim nor a closet Sham - I really am a Seagull.
Disappointing, another bad Premier start results wise for UCD. At least the performance was positive but we better start picking up points soon.
fair assesment, i dont think so!!Bray looked tired towards the end of the match but to say UCD should be disappointed they didnt go awaywith 3 points well thats absurd- they didnt play well enough to deserve 1 point. they underestimated Bray and played casually and that is exactly why they lost- a big win for Bray and long may it continue~!!Originally Posted by centre mid
if i had a nickle for every time i heard the word relegation i would have a lot of nickles-which are useless when you use euro's and just create small holes in your pockets..i pooped a kettle!
No i dont think ucd deserved 3 points, they would feel disapointed that they didnt get a 1 point - bray were poor in the second half, lets be honest, Dupay's chance should have been taken, just because i support bray doesnt mean that i think we should win every game regardless of the performanceUCD should be disappointed they didnt go awaywith 3 points well thats absurd- they didnt play well enough to deserve 1 point. they underestimated Bray
Bray were the better side in the first half and deservedly took the lead but the second half was poor - kept giving the ball away
[, just because i support bray doesnt mean that i think we should win every game regardless of the performance [/QUOTE]
I do. Every other season we seem to lose regardles of the performance- nows our time!!Supporter= someone who SUPPORTS!!I read a dictionary...turns out the zebra did it!
if i had a nickle for every time i heard the word relegation i would have a lot of nickles-which are useless when you use euro's and just create small holes in your pockets..i pooped a kettle!
Bugger all. What's your point? We dominated the entire second half and were the better footballing team when Bray were reduced to timewasting and being unable to string two passes together, so deserved a point anyway. Possession statistics would have been interesting and probably more relevant - I'd say 60% us?
d_informer - I'm sure centre mid supports the team, but the next time you're opening that dictionary, look up the difference between supporting and offering honest opinion. Think you'll find it's fairly big...!
If one team (UCD) does not get at least one effort on target and the other team (Bray W) does, and scores, then I don't see how UCD deserve at least a point!
Honest! I am not a secret Tim nor a closet Sham - I really am a Seagull.
Dominated? thats a bit far mate, at times in the second half it looked like Bray would get a second and kill off the challenge, of course there were also times when UCD looked the more liklier (spelling?) to score but I dont think either team dominated.
Better footballing? neither team managed to string passes together, I'd say UCD's passing was marginally the worse of the 2 teams.
Pessession does'nt count for much, it's what you do with it that counts.
Bray did look tired towards the end of the game and the window was there for UCD to press on and take something, but they were'nt up to it IMO
Eh? You can take the extreme view and say that if one team got 99 shots off target and the others countered once and scored with their only shot, they deserved the win. It would make more sense to lok at chances created overall, possession, etc. Bray had about two counter attacks in the entire second half and that was it. We deserved a point. Having seen how poor Bray were, especially in the second half, we should be very disappointed at not getting all three.
UCD won far more of the 50/50 balls, especially goal kicks. Bray only attacked on the counter - and then really only twice threateningly in the entire second half; the rest of the time, our defence was very comfortable. Bray spent the rest of the half spent putting ten men behind the ball and timewasting (Wes Charles in particular). If that isn't us dominating, I don't know what is. I've already made the point about us not creating enough clear-cut chances - doesn't mean Bray were anywhere close to parity in the second half.
Ah now. Second half, UCD were passing through your midfield at will. But if you want to believe that, fire ahead. If you actually believe Bray's passing was acceptable in the second half - when they repeatedly found touch, sliced clearances into the air and hoofed aimlessly - it doesn't sound as if logic is going to turn you around...
UCD won far more of the 50/50 balls, especially goal kicks. Bray only attacked on the counter - and then really only twice threateningly in the entire second half; the rest of the time, our defence was very comfortable. Bray spent the rest of the half spent putting ten men behind the ball and timewasting (Wes Charles in particular). If that isn't us dominating, I don't know what is. I've already made the point about us not creating enough clear-cut chances - doesn't mean Bray were anywhere close to parity in the second half.
Ah now. Second half, UCD were passing through your midfield at will. But if you want to believe that, fire ahead. If you actually believe Bray's passing was acceptable in the second half - when they repeatedly found touch, sliced clearances into the air and hoofed aimlessly - it doesn't sound as if logic is going to turn you around...
Yes a lot of Skippy's goal kicks were sliced into touch, and I never claimed that Bray's passing was near acceptable in the second half (quote from 1 of my posts on the Bray forum ``Both sides passing was below par and I'm sure that both managers, and Pete Mahon in particular, will be annoyed that there were'nt more chances created``), neither was UCD's. Bray's defence dealt comfartably enough with most of UCD's attack and we were at times threatening on the brake. Hell yeah we hoofed the ball, it was'nt pretty but it worked -a win is a win whether you play like Real Madrid at their best or Ireland at times in the 90's.
To say UCD dominated the second half suggests that some1 may be wearing blue blinkers, - it doesn't sound as if logic is going to turn you around.... Possesion wise UCD were dominant, but not in an overall sense.
Of course UCD will be dissapointed not to have taken a draw after having so much of the ball and doing so little with it as far as chances go- as I said at the end of my last post the window of oppertunity was there for UCD in the second half but they did'nt rise to the occasion.
Do you think the result was fair? and if not who's fault do you think it was that the result was'nt different? - By the way I'm not trying to pick a fight, just interested in your opinion
So how else would you be dominant? Bray had about two decent chances on the counter. Much of the rest of the half was spent with us winning the kick-outs or else mopping up very easily at the back and moving forward again. I would be very surprised if we hadn't more shots and corners than you in the second half. What more do you want? Can't think of any more of an overall sense than to say we dominated possession (as you admit), shots/chances and corners, other than on the scoreboard, and that's very often doesn't tell the true story!
Fair? In the sense that the referee didn't screw either team out of anything, yes, it was fair. In the sense that I think we showed we're a better footballing team than youz, then no, it wasn't fair. But hey, it's sport. I never intimated that the result was unfair (in the sense of us being done out of something), just that we deserved more.
Whose fault was it? The team's, most of the time. As I mentioned in the original post, our attacking was far too slow, giving Bray time to regroup and get most of the team behind the ball.
Glad to see!By the way I'm not trying to pick a fight, just interested in your opinion
College were all over them 2nd half. I don't think anyone reading this thread that wasn't at the game should leave thinking that Bray were even in the game after half time.
"I always likened him to a Rolls Royce. You just used him once a week & he'd be flawless"
Townsend on McGrath
Just a comment on the line-out in your report, Pineapple. My observation was that Tony Mac was playing in the centre of defence and Hurley was in mid-field - that's why he had the opportunities for going forward.
Also, the miss from Dupuy in the second half was a shocker but the cross from the left, from Robbie Martin, was a super one. More of those needed.
Hurley looked very promising, he showed some fine touches and can dribble past opponents but he has to be able to make that final pass.
When Kenna is back (next week, hopefully), I'd put him in the middle of the back four, keeping Micko at left-back. Put Tony Mac back into the middle and try Hurley instead of Murphy on the right.
Murphy got plenty of ball on Friday night in the second half but he did'nt do much with it. You guys were over beside him, Pineapple, What did you think?
I agree that the second half performance on Friday was much better than against the Drogs but you must remember, the opposition this time was Bray, who are more hoof merchants than the Drogs.
Overall, a draw would have been a fair result. Bray did enough in the first half, with flashes in the second, to get at least one point. But a win for them was more than they deserved.
I don't think you dominated the entire 2nd half really, yeah fair enough you probably had a bit more of the ball, but in fairness what did you do what it ? nothing if you can be honest. Bray had there own spells of pressure in the 2nd half, and again if your honest we had the much better chances and only for you keeper if could have been 3/4, He made great saves from Foxy, James and Lynch (Where as Our keeper did'nt have to make any proper saves in the whole match, one chance in the whole of the 2nd half which Dupuy headed wide).
From my point of view on over all play and chances i think Bray deserved to win - just.
Wahey! I'm not going mad!
Hurley was an interesting one. He was wearing four, which put him in centre-back, but he seemed to switch between there and centre-mid frequently. I never really saw Tony Mac drop back to centre-back. I actually said during the game that it kind of looked like the Andy Reid/Damien Duff positional swapping thingy was going on, only between centre-back and centre-mid. Very confusing trying to watch! Still, he had a good game alright.
Anto Murphy did well - got past his man a fair few times. Didn't get any telling crosses in though - partly because he didn't have anyone to aim at really.
Kenna has to play centre-back, cos he's not a full-back. Micko had a very good game, and if Robbie Mac's not going to be back for a week or two yet, then keep him there, and drop...who? Podge? I'd still like to see Brian Gannon being given a run on the wing, as he's one of the few players we have who we know can beat people.
So were you at the match ?
Who had the better chances in the 2nd half ? Which keeper had to make 3 very good saves to keep there team in it ?
As i said, College had one real chance in the 2nd half which Dupuy fluffed
We've had this already - I don't think you can judge a game by which keeper had the saves to make. Bray attacked purely on the counter, and then only twice in the entire half. Apart from that, UCD were well on top but just couldn't break down Bray's often ten-man defence.
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