Wanderers slump to 3rd defeat of the season

Match report thanks to www.braywanderers.ie
Bray's poor fortune resumed at the Carlisle Grounds, with Dane Massey the latest of Pat Devlin's squad to suffer an early exit.

Even though the Seagulls responded well to Dean Marshall's startlingly early goal, their plans were knocked back by a head injury to Adam Mitchell in the final minutes of the first half which saw him replaced before the break.

Jason Byrne struck seven minutes into the second period to give the hosts hope, but Drogheda regained the lead ten minutes later following a beautifully timed run by Shane Grimes, who fed Brian Gannon from the left to beat Darren Quigley with a nonchalant poke.

Barely two minutes later, Bray were reduced to ten men following consultation between the officials over an off-the-ball incident involving Massey and Gannon, who had just clashed with Kieran "Marty" Waters.

Midway through the half, substitute Sean Brennan latched on to a long cross-field ball, and faked his way around Quigley to fire into an empty net.

Three minutes later, it was the turn of Drogheda fans' favourite Declan "Fabio" O'Brien, only minutes on the pitch, to fire a low ball that skipped under the Bray keeper.

A Dean Zambra free wide on the left dipped just under the crossbar into Gabriel Sava's net four minutes later, but any hope of salvaging a point would have been misguided, as the visitors turned up the heat in the minutes remaining, and Quigley was the busier of the netminders.

Report: Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Bray Wanderers: 1 Darren Quigley; 2 David Webster, 5 Adam Mitchell, 3 Dane Massey, 20 Seán Houston; 16 Dean Zambra, 21 Adam Hanlon, 6 Danny O'Connor (c), 14 Graham Kelly, 11 Kieran Waters; 10 Jason Byrne

Subs: 4 Colm Tresson, 8 Daire Doyle (for Mitchell 49+ inj), 12 Kevin Knight, 17 Jonathan Kelty, 18 John Mulroy (for Houston 73), 24 Stephen Last (for Kelly H/T), 25 Brian Kane (gk)

Drogheda United: 1 Gabriel Sava; 2 Stephen Quigley, 5 Alan McNally (c), 4 Derek Prendergast, 12 Shane Grimes; 11 Gavin Brennan, 8 Ryan Brennan, 17 Brian Gannon, 14 Dean Marshall; 9 Tiernan Mulvenna, 15 Peter Hynes

Subs: 3 Philip Hand, 6 Mark O'Brien (for R Brennan 83), 10 Sean Brennan (for Mulvenna 64), 19 Declan O'Brien (for Hynes 67), 21 John Breen, 40 Shane Finnegan, 42 Conor O'Keeffe

Referee: Padraig Sutton