Derry City dominate but unable to break down battling Bray Wanderers

Derry City 0 Bray Wanderers 0

Ryan McBride’s late rash tackle at the Brandywell last night clearly compounded Derry City’s woes despite dominating a hard-working Bray Wanderers.

The Derry skipper launched into what appeared to be a rash tackle on Chris Lyons near the half-way line with five minutes remaining, a decision which sees him miss Derry's long trek to Limerick on Monday.

But Bray’s tactics were clear from the outset as they regularly got numbers behind the ball.

That said, Derry dominated the scoring chances and in the 18th minute good work involved Cillian Morrison and Patrick McEleney ended when the latter's low show was saved by Bray goalkeeper Stephen McGuinness.

Ten minutes later Derry threatened again when a Patrick McEleney free was met by McBride who really should have scored. However, his free header was directed at a relieved McGuinness and Bray breathed a sigh of relief.

In the 32nd minute another Morrison shot was easily dealth with by the Bray goalkeeper as the home lot continued to struggle in the front line.

Bray's only clear-cut chance of the first half arrived three minutes from half-time when a David Cassidy corner was headed wide by Hugh Douglas and it was a chance the centre-break should really have taken advantage of.

Controversy arose in the 74th minute when, following a McEleney free-kick McNamee headed the ball onto the crossbar before Philip Lowry forced the rebound home but the referee's assistant raised his flag for offside.

McBride's rush of blood occurred in the 85th minute when his rash tackle on substitute Lyons saw referee, Paul Tuite produce a straight red card.

DERRY CITY: Doherty; Sharkey, McBride, S. McEleney (Jarvis, 47), Barry; Morrison (Curran, 64), Lowry, McNamee, Timlin; P. McEleney; Elding (Houson, 90).
BRAY WANDERERS: McGuinness; Barker, McNally, Douglas, O'Reilly; Hanlon (McDonagh, 82), Kelly, Cassidy, McEvoy, McElynn (Scully, 77); Onwubiko (Lyons, 61).
Referee: P Tuite (Dublin).