Bray Wanderers showed tenacious defensive resolve to frustrate the Students at the UCD Bowl to book their place in the First Division play-off final.
Despite dominating possession, and playing against 10 men for over half an hour, College needed an 89th-minute Ronan Finn penalty to finally beat Jimmy Corcoran, who added to telling stops in Thursday’s first leg with a string of second-half saves.
Bray now meet Athlone Town in Saturday’s decider at Dalymount Park to determine who plays Drogheda United in the promotion/relegation play-off on 16 November.
Chasing a 2-0 deficit from the Carlisle Grounds, UCD made four changes to their starting XI, needing a big first win in six games to keep their season alive.
And they took the game to Bray, Adam Wells getting forward from left-back to drive his shot narrowly wide from their first sight of goal on 12 minutes.
Sam Norval then had a shot deflected for College’s first corner of the match as Bray kept their shape well in defending stoutly with Corcoran a safe pair of hands behind them as UCD failed to get a shot on target in the first half.
The game continued in the same pattern from the resumption, UCD owning the ball as Bray stood tall defensively, epitomised by a dogged block by Cole Omorehiomwan when Mikey Raggett got turned to shoot.
Stephen Mohan came close with a cross that bounced off the Wanderers’ crossbar, having skipper past Harry Groome and Paul Murphy down the left.
Bray were then down to 10 men on 58 minutes when substitute Murphy saw a somewhat harsh straight red card for a follow through challenge on Wells.
UCD’s first shot on target arrived just past the hour when Eanna Clancy’s drive from distance was brilliantly clawed away by Corcoran.
The Seagulls’ keeper made further stops to thwart Ciaran Behan and Donal Higgins as UCD pressed late on, finally getting a goal back on 89 minutes.
Max Murphy tripped Behan just inside the area with skipper Finn despatching from 12 yards.
Despite seven minutes of added time, UCD couldn’t find an equaliser as Bray held out, deserving their passage over the two legs.
UCD: Kian Moore; Luke O’Regan, Eanna Clancy, Niall Holohan (Donal Higins 66), Adam Wells; Ronan Finn, Sean Brennan (Danu Kinsella-Bishop 73); Ciaran Behan, Sam Norval (Jake Doyle 56), Stephen Mohan (Michael McCullagh 56); Mikey Raggett (Hugh Parker 56)
Bray Wanderers: Jimmy Corcoran; Max Murphy; Kilian Cantwell, Cole Omorehiomwan, Kieran Cruise (Paul Murphy 43); Harry Groome, Darren Craven; Guillermo Almirall (Jamie Duggan 63), Shane Griffin, John O’Sullivan; Cristian Magerusan (Ben Feeney 73)
Referee: Declan Toland (Athlone)
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Watch Republic of Ireland v Georgia in their UEFA Euro 2025 play-off second leg on Tuesday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra from 19:25.
Watch Derry City v Shelbourne in the League of Ireland on Friday from 7.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Shamrock Rovers v Waterford is also live on the RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
