Finn Harps 1-0 Bray Wanderers
FINN HARPS EARNED their third home win of the season with a single-goal victory over Bray Wanderers with a former Seagull scoring the winner.
Dave Scully lined out at the Carlisle Grounds last season and tonight scored the only goal of the game for his new employers against his old ones.
A well-worked move on nine minutes saw Sean Houston — another former Wanderer — set Ryan Curran free down the left and his centre was perfect for the onrushing Scully to tuck home from close range.
But even though Mick Cooke’s side had Peter Cherrie to thank for keeping the score at 1-0 with a fantastic tip-over save from a blistering Hanlon effort on 14 minutes, it was a contest in which the visitors had plenty of the ball.
Harps got pressed back in the second half and it was an anxious finish to add to Ollie Horgan’s side’s victories over Derry City and Longford Town.
Bray forced six second-half corners and put plenty of crosses into Richard Brush’s penalty area.
But the Harps goalkeeper wasn’t overly tested and the best Bray chance came before Scully got on the scoresheet.
Robbie Creevy passed up a great opportunity as early as the sixth minute when he was unchallenged in the hosts’ penalty area, but his header from a centre from Hugh Douglas was well off target.
Late on, Harps sat in to protect their slender advantage, but it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it might’ve been, with Bray being blunt up front.
Finn Harps: Richard Brush; Damien McNulty, Keith Cowan, Packie Mailey, Ciaran Coll; Adam Hanlon (Raymond Foy 67), Sean Houston, Gareth Harkin (Matthew Crossan 87), Dave Scully (Michael Funston 81); Tony McNamee; Ryan Curran.
Bray Wanderers: Peter Cherrie; Hugh Douglas, Paul Finnegan (Alan Byrne 35, Jason Marks half-time), Conor Kenna, Sean Harding; Dylan Connolly (Gareth McDonagh 77), Robbie Creevy, Ryan Brennan, Karl Moore; Andrew Lewis, Ger Pender.
Referee: Ray Matthews (Mullingar).
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
