Bray Wanderers 2-2 Shamrock Rovers

Thanks to www.braywanderers.ie

BRAY WANDERERS 2 SHAMROCK ROVERS 2

Shamrock Rovers had to struggle to ensure a share of the points at the Carlisle Grounds, after the home side went into the break ahead by two.

It's arguable that both sets of fans were equally stunned by that half-time scoreline.

After a slow start, Bray went ahead just after a quarter of an hour in, when Kieran "Marty" Waters netted from a Dane Massey spread ball.

And with Bray dominating much of the rest of the period, the same player fired from much the same position in off the underside of the crossbar, just eight minutes before the break.

There was drama in time added when Gary Twigg went down heavily under a challenge by Pierce Sweeney, and referee Paul McLaughlin pointed to the spot.

Twigg stepped up, but in the meantime McLaughlin had been called to the dugouts, where his visit resulted in the departure of Keith Long to the stands.

Twigg's unsupervised spot-kick, which Quigley had ignored, had to be retaken, and this time the Bray keeper got down to parry. Billy Dennehy rushed to the rebound and netted, but the goal was not allowed.

Rovers got one back midway through the second half, when Ronan Finn sliced past Quigley from 14m, and in a feisty final period Twigg finally got his goal eight minutes from time.

But the Hoops were unable to break through again before the final whistle.

Report:  Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Bray Wanderers: 1 Darren Quigley; 2 David Webster, 6 Danny O'Connor (c), 22 Pierce Sweeney, 12 Kevin Knight; 16 Dean Zambra; 11 Kieran Waters, 3 Dane Massey, 21 Adam Hanlon; 18 John Mulroy; 10 Jason Byrne

Subs: 5 Adam Mitchell (for Knight 83), 8 Daire Doyle (for Byrne 86), 9 Anthony Bolger, 14 Graham Kelly, 17 Jonathan Kelty, 24 Stephen Last, 25 Brian Kane (gk)


Shamrock Rovers: 1 Oscar Jansson; 22 Conor McCormack, 4 Craig Sives, 5 Ken Oman (c), 3 Conor Powell; 7 Gary McCabe, 18 Chris Turner, 21 Ronan Finn, 20 Billy Dennehy; 9 Gary Twigg, 10 Gary O'Neill

Subs: 6 Stephen Rice, 14 Aaron Greene (for Powell 79), 16 Daryl Kavanagh (for O'Neill 64), 17 Graham Gartland, 19 Sean Gannon, 26 Dean Ebbe, 30 Reyaad Pieterse (gk)


Referee: Paul McLaughlin