Sporting Fingal 4 Bray Wanderers 2:THE SCALE of their following means yesterday's result at Santry probably isn't the FAI's idea of a fairytale, but the 800 or so locals who braved the weather made no secret of their delight at having watched Fingal make a cup final in just their second year of existence.
Manager Liam Buckley looked understandably proud afterwards as he pondered the idea of bringing this fledgling side to face Sligo Rovers in Tallaght on November 22nd. Before then he and his players must turn their attention to attempting to secure promotion, a process that will, if they are to be successful, almost certainly mean playing five more times, three in the play-offs.
It would hardly be an ideal build-up to their first crack at a major trophy but it must look like an attractive enough schedule to Bray Wanderers manager Eddie Gormley and co with Bray now needing to win in Derry on Friday to have any chance of their disappointment here not being compounded by relegation to the First Division for next season.
If the first 25 minutes yesterday were to be taken as any sort of guide then they would be as good as down already as the visitors’ inability to hold their own in midfield or cope at all at the back during those early stages allowed their former striker Eamon Zayed to score twice, and Alan Kirby once, leaving them with an utterly insurmountable mountain to climb.
Both managers looked to pack midfield behind lone strikers but, from very early on, it was clear that the approach was only working for one of the two. Throughout the first half, Fingal dominated across the centre of the pitch where they worked hard to win possession and then used it to far better effect than their opponents.
When pushing forward they consistently stretched Bray by using the width that Conan Byrne and Alan Kirby provided while Robert Bayly’s late runs into the opposition area repeatedly left the Wanderers back four scampering about rather desperately attempting to contain the threat.
They generally failed and Zayed, having made it five goals in three games with two well-taken ones here, might be a little disappointed that the such defensive chaos never quite presented the opportunity for him to complete his hat-trick.
“It’s disappointing, particularly the first half hour,” said Gormley afterwards. “We stood off them, gave them a bit too much respect and one or two of the younger lads froze but then I suppose you have to expect that.
“We were poor everywhere, though. I could have made 10 substitutions at half-time we were that bad.”
A couple of the changes he did make certainly had a positive effect on the shape of the game from Bray’s perspective and Gormley insisted that had his side not had Chris Deans sent off after having pulled a goal back through a fine Gary McCabe free, they might have been in a position to push on and salvage a replay.
There’s probably an element of wishful thinking about it for while the contest was not nearly so one-sided in the second half, Fingal certainly had chances to add to their tally and it’s hard to imagine that some of the slightly playful passing they indulged in would have been tolerated by Buckley had their been a greater threat of a genuine fightback.
As it happened, Wanderers were killed off a delightful goal by Bayly who played a couple of neat passes before hitting a looping first-time volley over Chris O’Connor from the edge of the area. The goalkeeper reacted brilliantly a little later to deny Robbie Doyle from close range.
John Mulroy grabbed another back for Wanderers on the break after Bayly had given the ball away and Colm James slipped on the half-way line but time had all but run out for the visitors who, not for the first time this year, lacked the quality to really rattle their opponents in their own half.
Fingal will now face a Sligo side that narrowly beat them out in Morton Stadium in the quarter-finals of the League Cup five months ago but Buckley shrugged off the idea that the result of that game might have a bearing on next month’s rematch.
“I think we had one striker and no centre halves that night,” he said. “No, this will be an altogether different game. It should be a good one and once we get these league games out of the way we’ll be looking forward to it.”
SPORTING FINGAL: Konopka; James, Maher, Paisley (Whelan, 54 mins), Frost; Byrne, McFaul, Bayly, Williams (Doyle, 75 mins), Kirby (Foley, 64 mins); Zayed.
BRAY WANDERERS: O’Connor; Brennan (McCabe, half-time), Deans, Foran, Doyle; Tresson (Coughlan, half-time), Shields, Mulcahy, Massey, Kelly (Mulroy, 53 mins); Byrne.
Referee: Pat Kelly (Cork).
