BRAY WANDERERS wore a new red strip at the Carlisle Grounds yesterday and it proved a lucky omen with a Kieran O'Brien goal enough to secure the points for Pat Devlin's men.

Dundalk can have few complaints as Bray were by far the hungrier side. And but for some solid defending from the former Bray favourite, Mick Doohan, the score might have been greater.

The centre half has come on in leaps and bounds since his move to Oriel Park but elsewhere the problems in the Dundalk side were bountiful.

And they were cruelly exposed after just four minutes when a free on the right from Robbie Coyle allowed O'Brien to touch the ball home despite the attentions of Sean Murphy.

Dundalk did start to come into it after that and might have snatched an equaliser but for some poor finishing in the final third of the pitch.

Evidence of this came towards the end of the first half when Joe Hanrahan dispatched a ball over to the waiting Joe Gallan. The end result, however, was a poor header that goalkeeper Pat Trehy collected with relative ease.

All in all it was a promising opening 45 minutes but whereas football skills prevailed in the first half, the more cynical side of the game began to creep in as the game wore on and both teams can count themselves fortunate to have left the field with 11 players on the pitch.