FAI Cup Report: Bray Wanderers 0 - 3 Shelbourne

Patrick O’ Connor reports from the Carlisle Grounds in Bray.

Shelbourne progressed into the next round of the Extra.ie FAI Cup without ever needing to get into top gear when they overcame Bray Wanderers by 3-0 at the Carlisle Grounds in Bray on Friday night.

The gulf in class between the Premier and the First Division was obvious throughout the match and the possession statistics alone, Shelbourne’s 67% to Wanderers’ 33 %, tells its own story.The two teams had very contrasting form coming int the game, Shelbourne had only lost once on five league games, while Bray Wanderers had lost four of their last five league games.

The Seagulls needed to get off to a good start if they were to upset the odds but the air was sucked out of their challenge within the first ten minutes when they went two nil down and if was effectively game over even at that early stage.

The omens were not good for the home side as early as the second minute when Shelbourne’s Sean Boyd let fly with a speculative effort from all of 30 meters drawing an excellent save from Stephen McGuinness who managed to tip into onto the cross bar.It only took another three minutes however before Boyd did score the first of his two goals.A slick passing move down their left flank gave Conor Kane a chance to fire a low ball across the box and Boyd flicked it past McGuinness with his first touch for a good goal.

Five minutes later Boyd struck again for his ninth goal of this season to put Damian Duff’s side 2-0 ahead. Luke Byrne played a diagonal ball between the Bray central defenders Jack Hudson and Hugh Douglas but Boyd got between both and guided the ball past McGuinness for a relatively easy second goal.

The home side contained their opponents for the remainder of the first half but they were playing second fiddle at all stages and never tested Brendan Clarke in the Shelbourne throughout the opening 45 minutes. Both sides made a raft of substitutions in the second half and one of those, new signing Matty Smyth, was instrumental in setting up the decisive third goal.Shane Farrell put Smyth through inside the box in the 66th minute but as his angle for a shot was too tight, he delicately back heeled the ball into the path of the inrushing Jack Moylan who passed the ball into the net for a great team goal.

Pat Devlin’s side continued to try to claw back the large deficit with Conor Clifford and Jamie Hollywood in midfield instrumental in prompting some attacks that never really tested the Shelbourne defence. Hollywood did have a good shot on target in the 58th minute which Clarke could only parry away at the first attempt but there was no follow up from Wanderers and he had time to gather the ball at the second attempt.

The game petered out with little by way of excitement in the final 15 minutes, Shelbourne can now look forward to the draw for the last 16 stage while Bray Wanderers will be able to focus on their remaining matches in their league campaign.

Bray Wanderers: Stephen McGuinness; Jack Hudson, Hugh Douglas, Kevin Knight, Jamie Callaghan (Keith Dalton 86), Paul Fox, Ben Feeney (Eoin Massey 86), Callum Thompson (Evan Harte 63), Jamie Hollywood, Kurtis Byrne (Darragh Lynch 63), Ben Feeney.

Subs not used: Ben Clarke, Billy Hendley, Conor Knight, Kieran Marty Waters, Dean Zambra.

Booked:  Ben Feeney (31), Paul Fox (64).

Shelbourne: Brendan Clarke; Conor Kane, Shane Griffin, Luke Byrne (c), (Lewis Temple 73), Gavin Molloy, JJ Lunney (Brian McManus 61), Jack Moylan (JR Wilson 73) Kameron Ledwidge, Shane Farrell, Sean Boyd (Dan Carr 61), Josh Guirgi (Matty Smyth 52)

Subs not used: Scott Van der Sluis (GK); Aaron O’ Driscoll, Aodh Dervin, Gavin Hodgins.

Booked: Sean Boyd (40), Brian McManus (76).

Referee: Sean Grant

Extratime.com Player of the Match: Sean Boyd (Shelbourne)