Bray Wanderers 1 - 1 Liverpool XI

Bray Wanderers hung on for a famous draw with Liverpool Reserves at a wet Carlisle Grounds on Monday night. The fixture, organised as part of a new arrangement between the clubs, attracted a huge crowd with bucket seating put in place to cater for the extra demand for tickets.

The first half was played in a very open manner with both sides enjoying good spells of possession, and both creating scoring chances. Bray looked dangerous down the left with Jake Kelly breaking into the box frequently. He created the first half chance of the game after only two minutes and posed the Reds’ defence plenty of problems throughout.

Liverpool put together a good flowing move on eight minutes involving Silva, Eccleston and Nabil Elzhar, but good defending by Derek Prendergast saw the danger cleared. It was a chance created against the run of play with Bray’s superior experience and maturity evident.

With 16 minutes played, Dan McGuinness latched onto a long ball but poor control resulted in a rushed effort. Five minutes later a quickly taken free kick by Gary Dempsey, who was at the heart of most of Bray’s good play, found Dane Massey at the back post. The defender headed towards goal but referee Richie Winters eventually whistled for a free out.

Liverpool grew more into the game as the half progressed. Suso went closest with a 30 yard free kick way out on the ‘Pool right, before Eccleston spurned a glorious one-on-one to see the teams go in level at the break.

A plethora of changes after the restart, most notably Suso reverting to midfield, would completely change the look of the game as the second half progressed. 

However the more immediate effect was that the hosts took the lead. Jake Kelly’s free kick from just outside the Liverpool box brought a full stretch save from Jamie Stephens.  However, the stopper failed to hold onto the ball and substitute defender Adam Mitchell reacted quickest to tap home.

The lead was short lived though as the visitors levelled matters eight minutes later when striker Nathan Eccleston curled home from a tight angle inside the Bray box. The goal was a sign of things to come as Liverpool began to boss the game, with Suso pulling the strings.

Eccleston went close again before another substitution saw the highly regarded 16 year old, Raheem Sterling, enter the fray on the left wing. He immediately went to work creating chances as, time and time again, he broke down the left before cutting in and shooting with his right foot.

But, to the hosts credit, they weathered the pressure well for the most part. David Amoo fizzed an effort across goal before Sterling’s dipping effort rocked the crossbar, with the keeper well beaten.

Amoo went close late on again before substitute Kristijan Emilson got on the end of a Sterling cross.  Cue a goalmouth scramble, but Bray eventually cleared the danger and hung on for a famous result.


Bray Wanderers: Brian Kane; Dave Webster (Stephen Brennan, HT), Dane Massey (Marty Waters, HT), Shane O’ Connor (Stephen Last, 73’), Derek Prendergast (Adam Mitchell, HT’); Gary Dempsey (Chris Shields, 73’), Shane O’Neill (Ryan Coombes, HT), Graham Kelly (Sean Houston, 61’), Jake Kelly (Ger Pender, 61’); Dan McGuinness (Conor Butler, HT), John Mulroy (Dean Zambra, 61’).

Subs Not Used: Matt Gregg.

Liverpool XI: Jamie Stephens (Tyrell Belford, 61’); Emmanuel Mendy, Brad Smith, Stephen Sama, Matthew McGiveron; Craig Roddan, Toni Silva (David Amoo, HT), Michael Roberts (Krisztian Adorjan, HT), Nabil Elzhar (Raheem Sterling, 72’); Nathan Eccleston (Emilson, 82’), Suso.

Referee: Richard Winters.
Extratime.ie man of the match: Suso – Reverted to midfield in the second half and was central to almost all the Reds attacks as they pressed for a winner.