National League Premier Division/Bohemians 1 Bray Wanderers 0: Frustrated twice by the woodwork and fortuitous Bohemians defending, their one mistake deprived Bray of any reward at Dalymount Park last night as both sides finished with 10 men.
Bray started the better and Andrei Georgescu's shot came off the post on 18th minutes. Terry Palmer should have given Bohemians the lead five minutes later but his free header was off target.
Bray's Brian McGovern gifted Bohemians the chance for their goal on 33 minutes. He tried to shepherd the ball back to goalkeeper Chris O'Connor, but there was not enough pace on it. Tony Grant nipped in and was upended by O'Connor who was booked before Grant sent him the wrong way from the spot.
On 39 minutes Bohemians' Des Byrne was robbed of the ball by Colm Tresson and had Ken Oman and goalkeeper Matt Gregg to thank for keeping the deflected shot out. Bohemians should have increased their lead on 42 minutes as Fergal Harkin's shot cannoned off a defender and Stephen Ward blazed over the bar.
The post and Gregg came to Bohemians' rescue early in the second half. Eamon Zayed's flick came off the butt of Gregg's near post and minutes later Gregg got his body in the way of a Jody Lynch header.
Bohemians should have doubled their margin on 82 minutes. Grant fed the ball through to Ward whose shot was well stopped by O'Connor.
Bohemians' James Keddy was shown a second yellow for a foul on Stephen Gifford on 89 minutes before Bray substitute Robbie Dunne received a straight red for a clash with Niall O'Reilly.
BOHEMIANS: Gregg; O'Reilly, Oman, Palmer, Byrne; Harkin, Hunt, Keddy, O'Keeffe (Kelly, 71 mins.); Grant, Ward.
BRAY WANDERERS: O'Connor; Gifford (Dunne, 90 mins.), Lynch, McGovern, Keogh; Tresson, Kevin O'Brien (O'Reilly, 43 mins.), Fox, Tyrrell (Kieran O'Brien, 87 mins.); Zayed, Georgescu.
Referee: I Stokes (Dublin).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)