Bray Wanderers (2) - St Patrick's Athletic (2)

Match Report

Bray Wanderers 2 - St Patrick's Athletic 2

A bitter-sweet end to a rollercoaster match saw Jason Byrne complete Bray's fightback from 2-0 down with their equaliser seven minutes from time only to be sentoff two minutes later.

Byrne controlled Kieran O'Brien's cross to swivel and drill home a left foot shot on 85 minutes to give Bray nothing more than they deserved.

But, alas, the 22-year-old, harshly booked for an earlier tumble with Trevor Crolly, was trooping off the field within minutes after tripping Paul Byrne from behind; his second bookable offence.

In a cracking game, Liam Kelly had St Patrick's in front on 25 minutes when he nipped in behind a hesitant Jody Lynch to reach goalkeeper Shay Kelly's long free-kick.

The St Patrick's striker cleverly flicked the ball over the advancing Eddie van Boxtel before tapping home his fifth goal in six games.

Fellow striker, Gerard McCarthy, doubled the in-form visitors' lead ten minutes later as Bray conceded another bad goal.

Van Boxtel could only partially punch clear a Paul Byrne corner. The ball fell perfectly at the feet of the unmarked McCarthy whose weak sidefoot shot still had enough power to run through a forest of legs and enter the net.

Two St Patrick's old boys combined to get Bray back into the match in first-half injury time. Shay Kelly totally misjudged a corner from Keith Long and Dave Campbell got in behind him to find the net with a powerful header. Bray pressed hard for their equaliser throughout the second-half. But it looked as if it would elude them as both Long and Byrne wasted very scoreable chances. Byrne, and referee Dick O'Hanlon, then provided the final twists.

© irishtimes.com

Match Info

Date: 29/10/2000
Competition: League
Venue: Carlisle Grounds

Home Team

van Boxtel; Britton, Lynch, Campbell, Farrell; O'Connor, Long, Tresson, Keogh; Dempsey, J Byrne. Subs: K O'Brien for Campbell (51 mins), Doohan for Dempsey (68 mins), Smith for Long (79 mins).