Bray enjoy frolic by the seaside

Much better teams than Sligo Rovers have come to the Carlisle Grounds over the past couple of months and left with their tail between their legs. The cup being the cup, though, there was always the chance that an inform first division side could put one over a side currently riding high in the top flight.

It wasn't to be, though, and with a little over a quarter of the game played, it was obvious that Tommy Cassidy on the Sligo bench was the only one going to be suffering from an upset.

The visitors might well have taken the lead in the second minute when Ian Gilzean cracked a fierce left-footed strike towards the top right corner which John Walsh did remarkably well to keep out, but it was downhill from there.

Paul Keegan, in outstanding form since returning from the United States in November, got the ball rolling for the home side when he rose unmarked to head home Eddie Gormley's 20thminute corner from the right. It was the striker's sixth goal in eight games.

Gormley has always been the competitive type so when Danny O'Leary miskicked a back pass from Carel Van der Velden four minutes later, the former St Patrick's player sent the ball soaring back over the Rovers goalkeeper from a little over 20 yards with a perfectly-judged volley for his fourth goal in seven games.

Cassidy's side then moved swiftly on from bungling to buffoonery for the third. Van Der Velden made a hopeless attempt to lob John Walsh from the kick-off, the Wanderers goalkeeper's subsequent kick downfield was flicked on and Jason Byrne took the scoring opportunity.

By then, the decision to start Ian Gilzean up front by himself was looking something of a miscalculation as Rovers were posing no threat whatsoever. Meanwhile their centre halves were being run ragged by the home side's strikers.

Any potential changes were also looking fairly academic with Wanderers so firmly in command that it was clearly going to take more than a second striker to turn the game around.

After Byrne made it 4-0 with a tap-in six minutes before the break, Cassidy acted anyway with young Raphael Cretaro joining the "Big Man" in attack. When the second half got underway, it looked as though the change would have a positive effect, but it was hard to say how much of the shift was down to Wanderers simply wishing to avoid the appearance of greed.

Still, it would have been unthinkable for the 1999 cup winners not to at least have matched their record win in the competition, a 5-0 defeat of St Francis two years ago. And they managed it 11 minutes from time when Philip Keogh's cross from the left was met by Keegan with a beautifully-struck leftfoot volley that clipped the inside of the post on the way in. There would have been another couple but for O'Leary saves.

Back to the drawing board for Rovers then, and back into the hat for Wanderers on Monday and you get the feeling that nobody else will fancy being handed a trip to the seaside.

Bray: Walsh; Britton, Lynch, Doohan, Tresson; O'Connor, Campbell (Dempsey, 72 mins), Gormley (Long, 80 mins), Keogh; Keegan, Byrne (Smith, 70 mins).

Sligo: O'Leary; Marshall, McNamara, Sheridan, McLoughlin; Rossiter (O'Dowd, 70 mins), Cretaro, Van Der Velden, Birks, Moran; Gilzean.

Referee: J O'Neill (Waterford).