Seagulls pay the penalty as Kuduzovic salvages it for City

ALTHOUGH last night’s tie was to be a wake for a lost club, Cork City supporters may have instead witnessed the death rattle of Bray Wanderers’ survival hopes at Turner’s Cross

On a day of high drama off the pitch, the Leesiders overcame their visitors, who were reduced to 10 men after an hour, thanks to a Faz Kuduzovic penalty after 36 minutes, leaving the Seagulls firmly rooted to the bottom of the league table as we enter the business end of the season.

After a week of massive uncertainty surrounding the embattled club’s future, the game was thrown into further doubt when torrential rain on Leeside compelled ground staff to re-mark the pitch while volunteers swept sheets of rainwater from the surface.

Referee Pádraig Sutton however decided the tie would indeed go ahead despite the difficult conditions with the ball often slowing to a stop on a turf pock-marked by puddles.

City took the lead after winning a penalty on 39 minutes when Danny Murphy picked the pocket of the Bray defence who were hampered by the quagmire conditions in the corner. Murphy fed Kuduzovic whose shot was well saved by Chris O’Connor but the Seagulls shotstopper then dragged down the in-rushing Bosnian striker.

The City number 10 pulled himself up to crisply convert the spotter into the old Shed End.

Cork boss Paul Doolin was just satisfied to take home the points. “I think we played some great football in patches. A one-nothing scoreline is always dodgy, and I felt we should have taken our chances, we certainly created enough.

“We played some great football and in the end we were happy to just hang in there and I have to praise the lads. They’ve been fantastic in really, really tough conditions” he added.

The home side had pegged back the visitors in the opening minutes; Kuduzovic combining well with Davin O’Neill in a new-look Leeside outfit after several dressing-room departures.

But the first real shot at goal didn’t arrive until 25 minutes when Stephen O’Donnell stepped forward after a short free kick to arrow a low drive at Chris O’Connor in the Bray Wanderers goal. City boss Paul Doolin was relieved to see that effort shave the outside of the post.

The 3,055 or so City fans who filled Turner’s Cross on such an inclement night should have been rewarded after 29 minutes when Kuduzovic’s free kick into the six yard box invited Davin O’Neill to attack but he contrived to lift the ball over from almost beneath the cross bar.

O’Donnell whipped another free-kick into the six-yard box where Dan Murray was stopping at the back post ready to nod goalwards, when team-mate Kuduzovic took it off his captain’s head with an unfortunate flick of his red boot.

Stephen Brennan was then sent off with 20 minutes to go when he talked himself first into a yellow card and then immediately afterwards a red card as referee Padraig Sutton had enough of the midfielder’s dissent.

Man-of-the-match Faz Kuduzovic may well brought home the match ball as he wasted two gilt-edged opportunites to add to the scoreline.

But the result was always consigned to the footnotes on a historic day for the Leeside club.

Bray battled admirably for the remainder, but the home side held the lead to collect a vital three points and perhaps more importantly a morale-boosting victory at the end of a traumatic week.

CORK CITY: Connor, Horgan, Murphy, Murray (capt), Kuduzovic, Dennehy, Lordan, O’Donnell, O’Neill (Silagailis 81), Long, Cambridge (Kiely 69).

BRAY WANDERERS: O’Connor, Doyle, Knight (Coughlan 54), Foran, Webster, Brennan, O’Neill (Kelly 54), Mulcahy, Mulroy (Tuohy 72), Shields, Massey.

Referee: P Sutton (Ennis).