Dundalk 0 Bray Wanderers 0:DUNDALK AND Bray Wanderers could not be separated as they played out a scoreless draw at Oriel Park last night.
The home side were dealt a blow just before kick-off when Daniel Kearns was pulled out of the starting line-up after feeling unwell in the warm-up.
His place was taken by youngster Johnny Breen who scored his first senior goal in the corresponding fixture last season.
Bray, arriving in Oriel Park on the back of three straight wins, made just one change to the side that beat Galway United last week with Matt Gregg coming in for the injured Darren Quigley.
It was Breen who had the first shot in anger, firing over the bar in the 12th minute after Jason Byrne had fed a Ross Gaynor throw-in nicely into his path.
Bray’s first opening came seven minutes later when Conor Murphy latched on to a long ball. He turned past Michael Hector to get a shot off which Peter Cherrie did well to deal with.
The Dundalk goalkeeper then had to push away a Colin Hawkins header just as it looked like the ball was heading for an own goal.
Bray stroked the ball about with confidence and they had Dundalk on the back foot again on the half-hour mark.
Dave Webster robbed Ross Gaynor on the right and slipped in John Mulroy for a 25-yard shot, but his effort posed no danger to the goal.
Attention switched to the other end two minutes later. Simon Madden delivered a wonderful cross into the Bray penalty area, but Jason Byrne, who showed all his experience to time the flight of the ball perfectly, could only smack his left-footed volley over the bar.
Byrne had alarm bells ringing in the Bray defence again just two minutes into the second half, meeting a Ross Gaynor corner at the near post only to guide it off target again.
Gaynor and Byrne almost combined again in some fashion on the hour mark. The Ardee man’s cross found the Dundalk number 10 on the penalty spot but his spectacular effort couldn’t find the mark.
Bray had chances off their own to pull ahead. John Mulroy shot wide after Gary Dempsey had shown good strength to ride two challenges in the build-up.
Conor Murphy then hurried an effort from 20 yards after a momentary lapse by Hector.
Ian Foster’s men had a late chance to win all three points but a combination of Matt Greg and the far post managed to keep a Hector effort out.
DUNDALK: Cherrie; Madden, Hector, Hawkins, N Murphy; Quigley, McDonnell, Ward, Gaynor; Breen (Griffin 60), Byrne (Duffy 84).
BRAY WANDERERS: Gregg; Webster, Mitchell, Prendergast, Massey; Mulroy (Kendrick 89), Dempsey, O’Connor (G Kelly 82), J Kelly; Murphy (O’Neill 80), Shields.
Referee: Richie Winter (Dublin).
