Bray Wanderers 2 Cork City 1: Andrei Georgescu all but ended Cork City's hold on their Premier Division crown with two opportunist goals to lift Bray Wanderers off the foot of the table.
In a remarkable turn around, Bray, beaten 6-0 by Cork just two weeks ago, and who had failed to score in six of their last eight games, got their revenge with a first win in 15 outings.
Though second in the table for the moment, Cork's run of 14 matches unbeaten coming to an end leaves them eight points behind leaders Shelbourne and with a game more played.
But Derry City and Drogheda United, who play tonight, both have four and two games in hand respectively, leaving Damien Richardson's side now in a battle to perhaps even qualify for Europe.
A three-minute spell early in the second half saw it all go horribly wrong for Cork as Bray got their match-winning strikes.
Stephen Fox stretched the Cork defence on the counter-attack to pick out the run of Georgescu on 52 minutes. And the little Romanian cut across Cork captain Dan Murray to drill in a shot that was deflected past Michael Devine and into the net.
The second goal was a nightmare for Devine he won't want to see again. There was no apparent danger as he came to collect David Tyrrell's low cross at his near post.
Inexplicably, Devine allowed the ball to squirm through his hands and Georgescu showed his striker's instinct to pounce and tap the loose ball home for his fifth goal of the season.
Cork battled tenaciously to get back into the match and substitute Denis Behan's 76th-minute shot was deflected onto the crossbar as Bray hung on.
Five minutes later Murray got them right back into it, however, when he arrived to blast to the roof of the net from Billy Woods' cross.
Tyrrell almost regained Bray's two-goal lead on 89 minutes, but his audacious chip from 40 yards came back off the crossbar, and Georgescu wasted the chance of his hat-trick when he sent the rebound wide, albeit while off balance.
If Georgescu got the goals, goalkeeper Chris O'Connor was Bray's hero at the other end with a couple of terrific saves in the first half.
First he denied Woods on 25 minutes, before a tremendous save at full stretch from Roy O'Donovan's 30-yard volley seven minutes later.
Cork were then livid with referee Paul Tuite on 42 minutes when he refused a penalty appeal when Stephen Fox appeared to pull back O'Donovan.
BRAY WANDERERS: O'Connor; Ivory, M. Roche, Tresson, O'Reilly; Georgescu, Fox, Caffrey, D Tyrrell; Broderick (O'Brien, 76 mins), O'Shea (Cousins, 88 mins).
CORK CITY: Devine; C Lordan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; O'Brien, Softic (B O'Callaghan, 71 mins), Gamble, Woods; O'Donovan, Fenn (Behan, 63 mins).
Referee: Paul Tuite (Dublin).
