Disappointing Treaty United suffer heavy defeat at Bray in First Division

DISAPPOINTING Treaty United suffered a heavy defeat as Bray Wanderers eased to a comprehensive 5-0 win in their SSE Airtricity League First Division on Friday evening at the Carlisle Grounds.

A Kieran Cruise hattrick and a Ben Feeney brace saw  Tommy Barrett’s men convincingly beaten as their outside promotion hopes were severely dented with a second successive league defeat.

Treaty United have fallen eleven points adrift of the final promotion playoff spot with now just seven games left to play.

After just nine minutes, Bray hit their first goal as Ben Feeney got on the end of a Guillermo Almirall cross to stroke the ball to the back of the net calmly. Feeney came close to doubling the Seagull's lead two minutes later but hammered his effort
from the edge of the box narrowly wide of the post.

In the 13th minute, an error by Evan O’Connor saw him pickpocketed on the edge of the box by Kieran Cruise before the Bray attacker rifled his low shot to the back of the net.

Three minutes later, slack defending at the back saw Cruise completely free at the back post. His sliced effort rattled off the inside of the post to give Bray their third and his second of the game.

Cruise completed his first-half hat-trick in the 36th minute, just 23 minutes after scoring his first, ending the game as a contest. The Seagulls attacker picked up the ball inside the Treaty box before flicking it over the on-rushing Robbie Lynch and placing his shot into the bottom right corner of the net.

The visitors best efforts came in the form of a couple of half chances from Steven Healy, Lee Devitt, and Robbie Lynch, but none could trouble Jimmy Corcoran in the Bray goal.

A sluggish first half was completed in the 42nd minute as Mark Walsh was the latest Treaty defender to be punished for sloppy play. His pass was placed directly to Cruise who slipped the ball calmly to Feeney in space.

The Bray attacker then rattled his shot to the back of the net to complete his first-half brace.

A drab second half ensued after the lightning-fast opening period with the first shot coming from the boot of Shane Griffin in the 65th minute, but his effort flew well over the crossbar.

In the 85th minute, a forgettable night for the Shannonsiders was made worse by a second yellow card for Colin Conroy.

From the resulting free kick, Griffin forced a diving save from Chambers to keep the score at five.

A man and five goals down, Treaty saw out the remainder of the game on what was a grim evening for the Markets Field side.

Manager Tommy Barrett now must look to try and pick up his troops ahead of the visit of
Munster rivals Kerry FC to the Markets Field on Friday week.

Meanwhile, Bray will continue their promotion playoff push when they take on bottom side Longford.

Bray Wanderers: Jimmy Corcoran, Max Murphy, Killian Cantwell, Cole Omorehiomwan, Guillermo Almirall, Darren Craven (Christian Magersun 79), Harry Groome (Zayd Abada 75), Ben Feeney (Billy O’Neill 60), Zach Nolan, Kieran Cruise (Shane Griffin 60), John O’Sullivan (Conor Knight 60).

Treaty United: Corey Chambers, Ben O’Riordan, Lee Devitt, Lee Lynch, Thomas Considine (Alec Byrne 46), Stephen Christopher (Colin Conroy 46), Enda Curran (Yoyo Mahdy 60), Evan O’Connor (Mark Walsh 17), Fionn Doherty, Robbie Lynch (Christopher Horgan 46), Steven Healy.

Referee: Oliver Moran.