Bray Wanderers 4 Cork City 1
WITH CORK CITY’S eyes focussed elsewhere, Bray Wanderers capped a marvellous season by finishing in the top half of the table.
Two goals in as many first-half minutes from Jason Marks and Dylan Connolly and a late combo of John Sullivan and Ger Pender elevated the Seagulls into sixth spot and ensured that they took points off all 11 Premier Division opponents this season.
John Caulfield saw fit to leave Sean Maguire and Greg Bolger in reserve at the Carlisle Grounds and the best they could muster was Karl Sheppard’s 84th-minute consolation effort.
Maguire and Bolger watched from the sideline as the hosts struck on 33 and 34 minutes.
Kevin Lynch had a bit of space to toy with on the left flank and he fizzed a cross across the 18-yard line that Marks galloped onto and blasted first-time into Mark McNulty’s top corner.
Cork were quickly seeing double. Connolly proved that he was far more than just a pace merchant when he spotted McNulty straying from his line and he executed the perfect dipping volley to leave the City shot-stopper in no-man’s land.
It was understandably an underwhelming second half. Sullivan nodded in on 82 minutes and Pender landed his eighth of the campaign on 88 minutes, meaning Sheppard’s strike did nothing other than to scupper a 12th clean sheet of the season for Peter Cherrie.
Bray Wanderers: Peter Cherrie; Sean Harding, Conor Kenna, Tim Clancy (Alan McNally, 77), Kevin Lynch; John Sullivan; Jason Marks (Darragh Noone, 83), Karl Moore, Mark Salmon, Dylan Connolly; Dean Kelly (Ger Pender, 66).
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Michael McSweeney, Dave Mulcahy, Kenny Browne (Ian Turner, 76), John Kavanagh; Karl Sheppard, Colin Healy, Gearoid Morrissey (Cian Coleman, 61), Chiedozie Ogbene; Gavan Holohan; Mark O’Sullivan (Danny Morrissey, 19).
Referee: Rob Hennessey.
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