National League Premier Division/UCD - 4 Bray Wanderers - 1: A convincing win and an above-average crowd got UCD's Saturday evening experiment off to a positive start as they moved up to fourth place in the table.
An official attendance of 837, approximately a third higher than the Belfield average, had club officials as pleased as manager Pete Mahon was with the efforts of his team on the pitch.
"It was a strange match, all right, it could have been 6-5," said Mahon. "They had the better chances and we weren't playing particularly well and all of a sudden we're two-nil up."
College scored twice inside a minute and three times in the six minutes before half-time.
A productive run and cross by left back Darragh Ryan, who worked a one-two with Connor Sammon, resulted in the unmarked Paul Byrne tapping in the opening goal on 38 minutes.
Further slack defending presented Sammon with a free run on goal to side-foot home from 16 yards for the second goal. Sammon added a third on 44 minutes after Chris O'Connor could merely parry a shot from Byrne.
Byrne touched home his second and UCD's fourth on 66 minutes after excellent work down the left once again by Ryan.
Colm Tresson got Bray's consolation goal on 82 minutes.
"I'm a long time in the game now and that was the strangest game I've ever been involved in," said Bray manager Pat Devlin. "We dominated the first half yet they get three breaks and score each time."
UCD: Quigley; Mahon, McNally, Kenna, Ryan; C Byrne (Dicker, 63 mins), Hurley, Cawley, McWalter; Sammon, P Byrne (Doyle, 78 mins).
BRAY WANDERERS: O'Connor; Gifford, McGovern, Roche (W Tyrrell, 78 mins), Ryan (Charles, 74 mins); Tresson, Fox, Keogh, D Tyrrell; Doyle (O'Brien, 64 mins), Zayed.
Referee: Hugo Whoriskey (Meath).
