St. Pat’s 3
Bray Wanderers 0
Brendan Graham reports from Richmond Park
SAINT PATRICK’S ATHLETIC secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over Bray Wanderers in front of a crowd of 1146 at Richmond Park this evening.
Both teams started the game brightly and were trying their very best to keep the ball on the ground and create some early chances in the game.
The first real chance of the game came the way of Pats after some very nice link-up play between Darragh Markey and Jamie Lennon saw the latter through on goal but his shot was weak and left Evan Moran with an easy save.
Simon Madden was causing havoc down the right for the hosts, driving forward with his powerful runs. A dangerous cross from him right onto the head of Ryan Brennan almost gave Pats the lead but the midfielder got too much on the header and sent the ball over the bar.
Moran in the Bray goal had his first test of the game shortly afterwards, pulling off two fantastic saves close to goal from Conan Byrne and Michael Leahy: Moran needed to be at full stretch for both to keep the game scoreless.
The Saints took the lead shortly after the half-hour mark as Brennan made amends with a beautiful strike from 25 yards.
Conan Byrne broke free from a Kevin Lynch attempt at a tackle and drove towards goal, doing well to stay on his feet. An attempted shot from Byrne fell kindly for Brennan who connected perfectly with the shot to send the ball past Moran and into the top corner.
Bray finished the first half strongly and began to create chances of their own with Gary McCabe spraying some lovely passes from the middle of the park.
They should have been level minutes before the half-time whistle when Jake Kelly rattled the crossbar with a powerful header at goal.
St. Pats doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half with Ian Turner scoring his first league goal of the season.
With his second assist of the night, Conan Byrne sent a lofted cross into the box which found its way through to Turner at the back post to tap home and double the home side’s lead.
An uphill battle at 2-0 down became an almost impossible task for Bray when winger Gary McCabe was sent off for a second yellow following a bad tackle on Jamie Lennon.
Substitute Graham Kelly got the third goal for the home side with five minutes remaining to get the bank holiday weekend off to a perfect start for Pats fans.
Saint Patrick’s Athletic: Brendan Clarke, Kevin Toner, Lee Desmond, Michael Leahy, Simon Madden, Conan Byrne, Ian Turner, Darragh Markey, Ryan Brennan (Conor Clifford 60), Dean Clarke (James Doona 74), Jamie Lennon (Graham Kelly 83)
Bray Wanderers: Evan Moran, Dylan Hayes, Darragh Gibbons, Connor Kenna, Kevin Lynch, Sean Harding (Alex Rafferty 89), Gary McCabe, Rhys Gorman, Jake Kelly (Darragh Noone 81), Ger Pender, Jake Ellis (Dragos Mamaliga 60)
Referee: Ray Matthews (Westmeath)
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