NL Premier Division - Bray Wanderers 0 Cork City 2: Cork City kept alive their slim hopes of qualifying for Europe next season with a comfortable victory over an out-of-form Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds yesterday.
Veterans Pat Morley and Declan Daly returned to make a significant contribution to this latest success.
Morley set up the first goal early on for winger Ollie Cahill and then scored the second himself on 69 minutes to secure the vital points.
Defender Neal Horgan raided down the left on 19 minutes to enable Morley to switch the ball into Cahill's path. The winger made no mistake shooting home from 12 yards.
Cork goalkeeper Michael Devine twice came to his side's rescue when pulling off excellent saves to deny striker Jason Byrne and defender Colm Tresson in quick succession.
Bray lacked ideas in midfield with the normally so effect Stephen Fox and Eddie Gormley never able to create the vital openings for strikers Paul Keegan and Byrne.
Morley then settled the game with a typical opportunist goal after the Bray defence were slow to clear their lines. Defender Stephen Napier was given room to head the ball down for Morley to finish clinically from 10 yards, giving keeper Matt Gregg no chance.
Even the introduction of substitutes Paul Forsyth, Matty Britton and Keith Long failed to inject any life into a strangely subdued Bray outfit and Cork might have even grabbed a late third goal only for Greg to deny strike Colm O'Brien.
"After the disappointment of last week's 3-0 home defeat by Bohemians, we just had to bounce back and we did that in style," said Cork boss Lane Murphy.
That was in total contrast to his Bray counterpart, Pat Devlin, who was bitterly disappointed with his team's low-par performance, with a vital league game against Derry at the Brandywell next Thursday and the FAI cup quarter-final against Bohemians at Dalymount Park on Friday week.
"That was a dreadful performance against Cork. We were terrible and it was an embarrassment to everyone associated with the club," said a furious Devlin.
BRAY WANDERERS: Gregg, Tresson, Lynch, Doohan, Farrell; O'Connor, Fox, Gormley, Keogh; Keegan, Byrne. Subs: Forsyth for Gormley (63 mins); Britton and Long for O'Connor and Keegan (both 76 mins).
CORK CITY: Devine; Daly, Coughlan, Napier, Horgan; Buckley, Bennett, O'Grady, Cahill; Morley, O'Brien. Subs: Carey and O'Flynn for Buckley and Morley (both 87 mins).
Referee: Paul McKeon (Dublin)
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