Sligo just save face

For most of the night all they were missing were a few American cops ushering the people away from the pitch with repeated cries of "all right folks, move along here now, nothing to see here". If the remaining few weeks are to boast more games like this, it's a match-day feature the club might well to consider adding to the Show-grounds experience.

If Rovers continue to perform like this, of course, warning the crowds off won't be much of a problem for the club will be heading for the First Division. There they would doubtless start winning games again and may well get crowds far larger than the couple of thousand who turned up on Saturday. They'll also have plenty of time for everybody to reflect just how they got themselves into their current predicament.

There seemed to be a little reflection going on in the dressing room afterwards. When political meetings go the way the team's post-match session did, the diplomatic term generally used is a "full and frank exchange of views" and, well, few people left the Rovers clubhouse this weekend in any doubt that the home side's players now know precisely where they all stand with each other.

All of which should augur rather well for Pat Devlin and his Bray Wanderers side, although Sligo's display in this game should have meant that there was no need for a replay. Devlin expressed mystification afterwards about how the whole thing was going back to the Carlisle Grounds, which was perhaps just a tad generous to his own side's performance, but for the rest of us the overwhelming emotion, as we pondered the two sides getting together to do it all again, was dismay.

"The conditions and surface were terrible out there and I think the fact that they'll be so much better on Wednesday will tip the balance further in out favour," said the Bray boss, "but still, I'm amazed and desperately disappointed that we didn't finish it off at the first attempt because I really didn't think that Sligo deserved anything out of it at all."

In terms of the 67 minutes it took Bray to get ahead, Jody Lynch was eventually the beneficiary of some poor defending from a corner and the centre half knocked the loose ball home from a few yards out. Sligo's manager Nicky Reid wasn't arguing with his opposite number. However, the Englishman, who limped off with an ankle injury just after the goal and who will miss the replay, probably had a point afterwards when he claimed that the locals had done enough to deserve another crack at a place in the semi-finals.

For most of the game Rovers surrendered possession sloppily in just about every department and relied far too heavily on Wesley Charles's mopping-up ability as well as a rather suspect off-side trap to keep Bray out at the back.

In reality, particularly given the visitors' dominance out wide, it was the inability of Kieran O'Brien and Barry O'Connor to finish what came their way that saved Sligo's bacon, for though they were far more lively when behind, it's difficult to imagine them salvaging anything had they been further adrift. As it was their equaliser came with 10 minutes to play and was the result of their two substitute strikers linking up well with each other. Nicky Broujos's long kick out was flicked on by Johnny Hoecks for Marcus Hallows and after Mick Doohan had missed the chance to intercept, the club's top scorer, just returning from injury, slotted the ball neatly past John Walsh.

Reid, like Devlin, reckoned afterwards that his side can now go on and win it, but pending one of the two's sides producing something worthy of victory in midweek, these will be the clubs that the other managers still involved in this competition are likely to hope they come up against when the semi-final draw is made this evening.

Sligo Rovers: Broujos; T Callaghan, Charles, Sheridan, Lynch; Rowlands, O'Grady, Reid, Hutchison; Shannon, Oates. Subs: Birks for Reid (69 mins), Hoecks, Hallows for Oates and Shannon (76 mins).

Bray Wanderers: Walsh; Tresson, Doohan, Lynch, Keogh; Tierney, Fox, Smith, Connolly; O'Connor, O'Brien. Sub: Kenny for O'Brien (63 mins).

Referee: D O'Hanlon (Waterford).