Bray Wanderers 2 Drogheda Utd 4:THREE goals in 11 second-half minutes eased Drogheda to victory as Bray finished with 10 men in a feverish contest at the Carlisle Grounds.
Drogheda had a perfect start when, with just 32 seconds gone, Tiernan Mulvenna crossed from the right to the back post and winger Dean Marshall’s header looped over goalkeeper Darren Quigley into the far corner.
Bray looked to have made a match of it when levelling on 52 minutes. Daire Doyle, who’d come on in first-half stoppage time for the injured Adam Mitchell, played Kieran Waters into the area.
Waters was upended by Drogheda skipper Alan McNally, but got to his feat quickly. Referee Pádraig Sutton played the advantage and Waters crossed for Jason Byrne to crash the ball home with his left foot.
Brian Gannon restored Drogheda’s lead on 63 minutes when shooting home following good approach play by Hynes and Shane Grimes.
Bray’s Massey then received a straight red card for appearing to stamp on Gannon two minutes later.
Substitutes Seán Brennan and Declan O’Brien then wrapped it up for Drogheda.
BRAY WANDERERS: Quigley; Webster, Mitchell (Doyle, 49), Massey, Houston (Mulroy, 73); Hanlon, Kelly (h/t), O'Connor, Zambra, Waters; Byrne.
DROGHEDA UNITED:Sava; Quigley, Prendergast, McNally, Grimes; G Brennan, Gannon, R. Brennan (M. O'Brien, 83), Marshall; Hynes (D O'Brien, 67), Mulvenna (S Brennan, 64)
Referee:Pádraig Sutton (Clare).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)