Bray Wanderers have confirmed that Celtic will play at the Carlisle Grounds on August 3rd when new management team Kenny Dalglish and John Barnes are expected to put the club's summer recruits, which include club record signing Eyal Berkovic, on display.
For Wanderers the game will be a useful workout in the preparations for the qualifying round of the UEFA Cup and as an incentive to supporters planning to buy season tickets for the coming campaign they have promised free admission to the Celtic game to those doing so over the next couple of weeks. Admission to the game will be £25 and £20 with season tickets costing £75.
Cork City, meanwhile, are waiting to hear from former international Liam O'Brien regarding his plans for the coming season. Dave Barry said yesterday that the club has made an offer to the midfielder but admitted that "Liam's a quality player who has been attracting a fair bit of interest from other clubs. It's in his hands now and we're expecting to hear from him once he has weighed up all of his options."
Meanwhile, a penalty miss 17 minutes from the end of Bray's friendly scoreless draw with St Johnstone at the Carlisle Grounds last night left the visitors still waiting to record their first victory in their short tour of Ireland, which finishes tomorrow night at Newbridge Town's ground against Shamrock Rovers.
The Scottish Premier Division side lost the first match of their tour at Richmond Park last Saturday when they were beaten 2-0 by National League champions St Patrick's Athletic.
After Nathan Lowndes had been up-ended in the penalty area George O'Boyle stepped up but their leading striker from last season could only direct a weak shot straight at Bray Wanderers goalkeeper, Alan Young.
Two goals in the final five minutes from substitute Steven McGarry sent last season's Scottish treble winners crashing to a 21 defeat against St Mirren in their pre-season friendly at Love Street last evening.
Henning Berg would prefer to be in the FA Cup than the World Club Championship. Berg is the first Manchester United player to speak publicly about his club's decision to withdraw from next year's premier domestic club knock-out competition.
