THIS was never going to be pretty, an ultra negative Bray Wanderers made sure of that from the first whistle. Thus Shelbourne would have taken a last minute winner off somebody's bum as readily as the outstanding 62nd minute strike by Stephen Geoghegan which maintained their title, charge.

"It's customary for the Tolka Park faithful to see visiting teams set their stall out from the start and leave the onus entirely on Shelbourne, but this season at any rate, they can rarely have seen such unashamedly defensive tactics.

In a sense though, you can't blame Bray Wanderers too much. Pat Devlin's team have tried to knock the ball around and play progressively with little or no luck this season. Staring down the barrel of relegation, they sought to suffocate the life out of arguably the league's most creative side. Relegation pretenders putting it up to title aspirants - it happens the world over.

Frustrating though it must have been, Shelbourne could expect no less really. That Bray were able to stand over free kicks repeatedly, and prevent any flow to the game was, however, more the fault of Dennis McArdle than anyone else. The inconsistent Dundalk official was not nearly as vigilant as he could or should have been, allowing the spoiling and constant shirt tugging and never letting the game flow.

Devlin employed Pat O'Brien as the spare man at the back and everywhere else Bray man marked rigidly. Even when Bray had the ball young Tommy Gill only had eyes for Tony Sheridan. It wouldn't have been surprising if he sat down beside Sheridan in the home dressing room at halftime.

By then, Shelbourne had been kept scoreless and well knew they were in for a grim old evening. Given Bray were going to stick with Plan A as long as it stayed scoreless, an early breakthrough would have changed the nature of the contest entirely.

But linesman Sean Brady, who signalled controversial and decisive penalties in recent weeks at the Brandywell and Belfield from near identical circumstances, ignored Shelbournes' protests when Bo McKeever blocked Mark Rutherford's cross after eight minutes.

The likeliest route to the Bray goal came from Sheridan's wells delivered set pieces, but Pat O'Brien headed a Pat Scully header off the line, Dave Campbell headed over while Rutherford, toepoked on the run from Vaudequin's through ball.

There's always the hint of a goal against the run of play on occasions such as these, and Bray flickered to life before the interval. But Alan Gough loomed large to save well from Robert Coyle's header and safely from Alan Dodd's shot.

The pattern continued unabated after the break. An excellent first touch put Stephen Geoghegan clear from Rutherford's chip but he shot at John Walsh's legs, before Scully headed another Sheridan free over and Rutherford shot wide following an indirect free inside the area after McKeever obstructed Pat Morley.

It was clear that it would require something freakish or opportunistic to break the deadlock. Cue the master marksman after 62 minutes. Rutherford's hanging cross was headed down by Vaudequin, for Stephen Geoghegan to hook a deft first time, waist high lob over his left shoulder and into the top corner.

So Bray had to come out and play, in as much as they could, and therefore afford Shelbourne more space to play in as the game belatedly opened up. A long way short of vintage form, sure enough Shelbourne still forced the best opening thereafter when Rutherford extracted a fine reflex save from Walsh with a meaty angled volley.

But the game had long since been strangled. Bray came for one point, and left with none. The title aspirants dug deep for all three, as sometimes they have to. It can't always be beautiful.

. English Premiership side Chelsea tried to bring Italy defender Paolo Maldini to London but were put off by AC Milan's ridiculous asking price, player manager Ruud Gullit said yesterday.