Sligo Rovers 3

Bray Wanderers 2

SLIGO ROVERS LEAP to ninth spot in the SSE Airtricity Premier Division table this evening, thanks to a stunning 3-2 victory over Bray Wanderers at The Showgrounds.

In a hugely entertaining relegation game, it was the Bit o’Red who came out on top, after Bray went ahead through Chris Lyons. Rovers pulled one back through Dinny Corcoran, before Sander Puri and Morten Nielsen got their names on the score sheet. A late Dave Scully goal in the dying seconds proved to be nothing more than a mere consolation.

While the hosts may have had the best of the early chances, it was Mick Cooke’s men who took the lead after 27 minutes. A Ryan McEvoy corner fell to David Cassidy, whose shot spent a number of seconds floating around waiting to be cleared, before Chris Lyons just touched it over the line.

Richard Brush tried to claim it never went over the line, but he fooled no-one. And straight from kick-off, the Bit o’Red went down the other end and made it 1-1.

Morten Nielsen played in Dinny Corcoran, and one-on-one with Peter Cherrie, the striker beat the former Dundalk man to make it one apiece after a hectic 60 seconds.

It was Micky Adams’ side who started the second-half the better of the two sides, and they went ahead in a controversial manner after 48 minutes. The ball appeared to hit Peter Cherrie’s chest and as he went to hold it, the onrushing Sander Puri knocked it out of his grasp and into the net.

The Bray players were up in arms, but they were left furious once again when they went even further behind. Morten Nielsen found space from the left, and the strong Dane flew through and took a shot at an angle, and despite Cherrie getting his fingertips to it — he failed to keep it out.

With just seconds left on the clock, substitute Dave Scully sent a low effort past Richard Brush, to make it 3-2.

Sligo: Richard Brush, Gary Boylan, Alan Keane, Tim Clancy, Regan Donelon (Danny Ledwith, 72), Sander Puri, David Cawley, Jason Hughes, Jennison Myrie-Williams, Morten Nielsen (Ruairi Keating, 72), Dinny Corcoran (Anthony Elding, 83).
Subs: Ryan Coulter, Raffaele Cretaro, Keith Ward, Rob Lehane.

Bray: Peter Cherrie, Michael Barker, Daniel O’Reilly, Hugh Douglas, Niall Cooney (Adam Mitchell, 78), David Cassidy, Ryan McEvoy, Graham Kelly, John Sullivan (Luke Fitzpatrick, 78), Chris Lyons, Adam Wixted (Dave Scully, 70).

Subs: Sean Fogarty, Luke Gallagher, Peter McGlynn, Gareth McDonagh.