Gary Cronin pleased as Bray continue title charge with win over UCD

Andrew Dempsey reports from the UCD Bowl

Bray Wanderers boss Gary Cronin admits that his side have put themselves in a ‘great situation’ as they went two points clear at the top of the First Division table this weekend.

The Seagulls ran out convincing 3-1 winners on Friday evening against UCD, and their title cause was substantially aided following Drogheda United’s 2-0 defeat at home to Athlone Town.

They are now two points clear at the top of the table with just three games left to play against Shamrock Rovers II, Galway United and Athlone Town.

“We said after the defeat last week that there is going to be twists and turns in this, and this one, but I don’t think it’s the last,” Cronin told extratime.com.

“We’re delighted with our three points and obviously the other result has gone our way.”

The Quinsborough Road outfit saw full-back Dylan Barnett impress with a man of the match display, but Cronin was pleased with his team’s general performance on the night.

“He was excellent, and he has come into a really good vein of form and he scored a free-kick for us,” the former Longford Town assistant boss added.

“The lads know exactly what type of opportunity they have at the moment, but that’s all it is, an opportunity.

“They’ve dragged themselves into a great situation and they’re going to do the best they can to make the most out of that. Dylan was excellent, Brian Maher was excellent as was Darragh Lynch.

“We wanted to go in without conceding that goal, but we did so we knew what was coming our way in the second half.

“We made a few adjustments to rectify that and the lads carried that out really well.”

The Seagulls – after a poor start to the season – have now won eight of their last ten league games and are now title favourites in many people’s quarters.

However, Cronin is not getting carried with the outside noise that is surround his side just yet.  

“I know people look and see who their favourites are and sometimes when your given a tag of being underdogs it can spur you on a bit to do whatever you can to be up there.

“Not just us, there’s a lot of good sides in the division and there was always going to be a kick of the ball in it until the very end.

“We never looked at that underdog tag and we wanted to just go about doing our own business as best we can.

“Whether people fancied us or not was none of my business. All I had to do was get the best out of the players I have and so far, we’ve done well.

“When you think back on it, there was people writing us off or calling for my head after the Drogheda game up in United Park which was only the fifth or sixth game.

“We’ve gone on an unbelievable run since. That’s all it is, a run and we have three important games left.”