LEAGUE OF IRELAND Shamrock Rovers 2 Bray Wanderers 2:ALAN CAWLEY scored a superb free-kick to earn Bray a welcome point as they came from 2-0 down in a rollercoaster second half at Tolka Park last night. Padraig Amond appeared to have given Rovers all three points with a well-taken brace of goals early in the second half.
But Rovers fell asleep to allow Gareth Coughlan get a goal back immediately before Cawley completed the comeback for the visitors on 82 minutes.
Rovers' protests about a free-kick awarded by Damien Hancock for a challenge by Danny O'Connor on Ger Rowe were to no avail and Cawley curled a sublime effort to the top left corner of Robert Duggan's net.
Amond finally brought the game to life within four minutes of the second half with Rovers' lead goal. Joseph Ndo beat two players from Sean O'Connor's throw with the ball running kindly into the path of Amond who confidently shot home from 14 yards. Bray might have equalised within two minutes but for a save by Duggan from Gavin Whelan's shot. But it should have been 2-0 three minutes after that but for a brilliant touch away from goal by Gough after Eoin Doyle got in to shoot from skipper Aidan Price's flick.
Amond doubled Rovers' lead on 65 minutes with a firm header from Simon Madden's superb delivery from the left. Bray hit back right from the kick-off with substitute Coughlan stealing in to drill a shot past Duggan.
The first half was scarcely as dramatic, though it might have been different following a rash challenge by Derek Pender on Pat Flynn, for which he was booked, afforded Rovers a third-minute opening from which they came within inches of taking the lead.
Ndo, back in the side following injury, curled a delightful free-kick off the Wanderers' crossbar with Gough recovering well to hold Danny O'Connor's follow-up drive.
If that looked a little too easy, Rovers' goalkeeper Duggan won't have been happy with the space allowed Patrick Kavanagh six minutes later as he had to be well-positioned to hold the winger's crisply hit shot from outside the box.
That was as good as it got for most of the remainder of a dour first half before a miserably small crowd. Darragh Maguire headed over from an Ndo corner while the latter set up Sean O'Connor who sliced wide. A defensive slip by Ray Kenny from Ger O'Brien's free-kick five minutes before the break had his team-mate in a fret as his misplaced header flew narrowly wide of his own goal. But the second half bristled to life within minutes of Rovers' lead goal.
SHAMROCK ROVERS:Duggan; OBrien, Price, Maguire, Madden; S. OConnor, D. OConnor, Flynn (McGill, 66 mins.), Doyle (Purcell, 76 mins); Ndo; Amond.
BRAY WANDERERS:Gough; Pender, Doherty, Kenny, Knight; Kavanagh (Coughlan, 62 mins), Cawley, Whelan, Duggan, Kelly (Rowe, 62 mins); Myler (Mulroy, 72 mins).
Referee:Damien Hancock (Dublin).
