Changing times for Bray faithful

If the league campaign continues to go to plan, they could probably do without a big cup run at Bray this season. Two years ago, of course, they won the competition but got relegated. Let's face it, Pat Devlin and co could probably do without that excitement.

It's worth remembering that Bray's league campaign started brightly enough that year with defeats in the opening month or so of Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne and Bohemians. But when it fell apart it really fell apart with Devlin's side suffering eight straight losses before a 1-0 win over Dundalk on December 27th which they then followed with six draws and two losses in the next eight.

The cup success meant European competition but there's little doubting that everyone at the club would have traded the outing against Grasshoppers of Zurich in the UEFA Cup for another year in the top flight.

Devlin insists that not much has changed around the club since then but while it was very much the same group of players that took Wanderers straight back up from the first division before the summer, the likes of Eddie Gromley, Keith Long, Matt Britton, Eddie Van Boxtel and Dave Campbell (all league medal winners at other clubs over the past few seasons) have contributed to the club's remarkably consistent form over the first half of this season.

The upshot is that the team have been beaten just four times in their opening 17 games and, while the table is still remarkably tight, their current position in the division could be described, at the very least, as comfortable midtable.

More surprising is that after suffering four defeats in the space of just six weeks they have successfully steadied the ship. Since losing in Ballybofey two months ago they have draw four games and beaten Longford, Cork and Shelbourne. It is a measure of the confidence within the squad that the last of the three wins, over Shelbourne, was the biggest inflicted on the champions for several seasons.

While the signings appear to have enabled the first team to cope with life in the premier division, Devlin insists that the future of the club continues to be forged behind the scenes where a new phase in the development of the Wanderers youth academy is about to be launched and the next stage of the redevelopment is scheduled to get underway.

The improvement of facilities at the Carlisle Grounds is the key, Devlin believes, to improving on Bray's still modest support base. "There's not much point," he says "in giving out about people not coming to ground if we haven't really got much to offer them when they get there. Over the next couple of seasons we'll see a fairly dramatic improvement in the quality of the spectator facilities out at the ground and when we've done that sort of work we'll really be in a position to build on the levels of support we're getting at the moment."

Already he insists, however, that dramatic progress has been made in areas like the sale of merchandise but while such improvements are seen as important, the development of young players remains Devlin's main priority for the future.

Wanderers's deal with Newcastle United lapsed over the summer and, while Devlin feels that the timing is unfortunate given that four of the current Irish under15 side are involved with the academy, he insists that he no longer sees such deals with English clubs as the way forward.

Having been linked on a personal level with most of the clubs where his friend Kenny Dalglish managed over the past decade or so Devlin has been instrumental in sending a considerable number of teenagers across the water. "The fact is, though, that we have to look beyond the English clubs. That's what we're aiming to do here and the way we go about it will be at the heart of the next exciting stage in the development of Bray Wanderers." Not that there's been a time in recent history when they've even had a chance to start getting bored out his way.

emalone@irish-times.ie