Bray W 1 Monaghan U 1 (Bray 7-6 on penalties):TEN MINUTES after he scored an own goal that might well have sent Bray Wanderers crashing down to the first division, Chris Shields got the penalty that guaranteed the club its top flight status last night at the Carlisle Grounds where spot kick misses by Alan Byrne and Paul Whelan ultimately proved fatal for the visitors.
It was a cruel way for United’s hopes of promotion to be killed off but the home side will feel that they just about deserved their success after fighting their way back from the brink of automatic relegation over the last few months and then on the verge of a crushing play-off defeat last night.
The travelling fans will doubtless dwell on the chances their side squandered not just last night but over the last few weeks but a few might take a strange sort of consolation from the fact that at least none was injured when the wall in front of them on the side facing the main stand collapsed for the second time in little over a year as they celebrated what was to be a very brief lead.
They had plenty to distract them, indeed, if they had stayed that long with the two sides dramatically exchanging goals right at the end of extra-time to push the tie to a penalty shoot-out which Wanderers won after the third round of sudden death.
Though the encounter had been even enough for the best part of the night, it was Wanderers who looked stronger through extra- time only to concede with 90 seconds remaining when Barry Clancy’s corner was turned off the post by Brian Gartland and Don Tierney’s follow up shot, which had looked to be going wide, was poked into his own net by Chris Shields.
Briefly, the striker had looked badly shaken but as the second minute of added time slipped away and Monaghan looked to be on the verge of victory, he popped up at the other end to send in a cross that Gabriel Sava, excellent over the course of the night, spilled for Jake Kelly to turn home.
Given the weather, it was the sort of mistake that had to be expected. Both teams, to be fair though, had done their best in the circumstances and not least because of the stakes involved, there had been a fair bit of excitement throughout even if neither ever really managed to string more than a couple of passes together before somebody mis-controlled or simply lost their footing in the increasingly soft surface,
Neither gave up trying and there were moments when the likes of Cathal O’Connor, Philly Hughes or Jake Kelly threatened to pull something a little special out of the bag. Over the course of the first half, though, only one save of any real quality was actually required and that was produced a few minutes before the break by Gabriel Sava who pushed over well after Danny O’Connor had taken a touch then let loose with a shot from 25 metres that, for a moment, looked to be dropping in just beyond the Italian.
Brian Kane, in for the suspended Matt Greg matched that midway through the second period with a brilliant reaction stop low to his right after O’Connor had nicked possession on the edge of the area then fed Shane Grimes whose fierce drive looked to be heading just the right side of the post. For the most part, though, the two sides got bogged down in midfield where possession was repeatedly exchanged and each, when they did manage to break forward, generally struggled to cope with the challenge of using the ball effectively around their opponents’ area, at least until the closing exchanges.
BRAY WANDERERS: Kane; Doyle, S O’Connor, Mitchell, Massey; Zambra (Shaw, 93 mins), Dempsey, D O’Connor, Kelly; Shields, O’Neill.
MONAGHAN UNITED: Sava; Whelan, Gartland, McMahon (McCrossan, 72 mins), Grimes; O’Connor (Hannaphy, 86 mins), Tierney, Byrne, Clancy; Hughes, Brennan (Bermingham, 75 mins).
Referee: D Hanney (Dublin).
