Bray lack finishing finesse

There could have been few spectators as happy as Shelbourne manager Dermot Keely at the end of what was another disappointing Cup quarter-final encounter at the Carlisle Grounds last night.

When these two finally resolve this tie at some point over the next couple of weeks back here in Bray, the winners will undoubtedly have struck a major psychological blow against one of their main relegation rivals. But somehow it's difficult to imagine either team seriously threatening a side that has polished off Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians and Derry in less time than it will have taken one of these to have knocked out the other.

Their second attempt to decide the semi-final place started even more frantically than the original tie and once again it was Wanderers who took the game to their opponents. In contrast to Saturday's encounter, though, Pat Devlin's side had few difficulties creating decent chances this time, although putting them away . . . well, that was a very different matter.

Bray have put a priority on defence this last couple of months, but presumably they didn't want to do it at the expense of scoring at the other end. However, only four goals in their last eight games against Premier Division opposition is a testament to the drop off in their firepower.

Pushing Stephen Fox up front alongside Barry O'Connor looked to be a promising enough move to counter the problem early on last night. The new pairing managed to get in amongst the Sligo defence in a way that O'Connor and Kieran O'Brien had pointedly failed to do at the weekend.

Their best scoring chance of the opening period came and went within a couple of minutes, though. Fox carried the ball goal-wards well, but his poor final touch allowed Nicky Broujos to make the block. Wesley Charles was on hand to make the covering header.

After a week of training reportedly spent getting his men to get it right in front of goal, Devlin, like the local supporters, must have known then it was going to be another nail-biting night.

Sligo owed their survival through the opening half in no small part to their Caribbean defender, Charles, who continually popped up to sort out the danger when those around him were having difficulty coping.

In last night's form Charles is just the man to step in front of bullets for you if the need was ever to arise.

As they had at the Showgrounds, Bray clearly sensed last night that under enough prodding the Rovers offside trap would finally unravel. But the 23-year-old's positioning was flawless for the most part this time and as the night wore on, the hosts increasingly opted for having a crack at Nicky Broujos's goal from distance.

One shot from Colm Tresson early in the second half did draw a decent stop from Broujos, who pushed the ball behind. After that pretty much the whole of the second hour took place between the two boxes, with Wanderers just about on top but Sligo no longer having to defend anywhere near so desperately.

For Rovers, Marcus Hallows looked the most likely to upset Bray and he and Oates both had short-range shots cleared off the line in quick succession just before half-time.

A win for the visitors would have been cruelly unfair to Devlin and his players, though, even if it would have spared some of their fans what promises to be another rather grim encounter in the second replay.

Bray: Walsh; Tresson, Lynch, Doohan, Keogh; Ryan, Brien, Tierney, Connolly; O'Connor, Fox. Subs: Coyle for Connolly (half-time), Parsons for Ryan (95 mins), O'Brien for Fox (105 mins).

Sligo: Broujos; Callaghan, Charles, Sheridan, Lynch; Rowlands, O'Grady, Birks, Hutchison; Oates, Hallows. Subs: McLynn for Birks (34 mins), Hoecks for Oates (79 mins)

Referee: D O'Hanlon (Waterford).

First division club Athlone Town have been deducted a point by the National League after £1,700 in payments due to Merrion Square for disciplinary fines, referees' expenses, affiliation fees arrived late.

The matter has now been resolved, but League president Michael Hyland said yesterday that the policy of the management committee was to deduct a point for every week late a club was with its payments.

Athlone manager Joey Malone described the league's action as "a disgrace".