Bray Wanderers 2 Drogheda Utd 2:TWO LATE goals from Brendan McGill and Joe Kendrick earned Drogheda United a point in a bad-tempered battle between the basement clubs at Bray's Carlisle Grounds last night.
Drogheda had the ball in the net on 35 minutes when a floated free from midfield by Ryan Brennan was headed home by central defender Jamie Harris only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.
But it was Bray who took control with two goals in the final two minutes of the first half. First Dave Webster drilled over a cross from the right which took a deflection off defender Kendrick for Jake Kelly to volley home. Bray stretched their lead in added time when Kelly blocked a Harris clearance and set up the chance for Shane O’Neill to shoot past the advancing Paul Skinner in the Drogheda goal. Bray defender O’Connor, booked early in the first half, was shown the red card by referee Pádraig Sutton on 53 minutes for a second bookable offence after a foul on Kendrick.
With their numerical advantage, Drogheda made it a nail-biting finish when first McGill was on target on 79 minutes. The winger let fly from 24 yards after a probing ball into midfield from Corie Treacy. And the Drogheda fans were celebrating when Kendrick had the equaliser from the penalty spot just a few minutes later.
Tresson was judged to have handled a cross from the right by Kendrick and was booked for protesting the decision. Kendrick took the penalty himself and made no mistake when firing his spot kick past Kane.
Even then, there was to be more drama when Drogheda’s Jamie Duffy was red-carded late on.
BRAY WANDERERS: Kane; S O'Connor, Tresson, Webster, Massey; D Doyle, Shields, Kavanagh, Kelly (Mulroy, 69 mins); R Doyle, S O'Neill (Georgescu, 82 mins).
DROGHEDA UTD: Skinner; Treacy, McNally, Harris, Kendrick; B McGill, Crowley, Daly, Brennan; Flood (Duffy, 67 mins), Fitzpatrick. Referee: P Sutton (Clare).
