Greene blast proves decisive for Bray
AARON GREENE scored a sublime winning goal as Bray beat Shamrock Rovers who finished with 10 men at the Carlisle Grounds.
Former Hoop Greene collected Keith Buckley’s pass on the right on 74 minutes, cut inside a defender before thumping a left-footed shot to the net from 20 yards.
Much the better side up until that point, Rovers then had left-back Trevor Clarke shown a second yellow card four minutes later for a late tackle on Mark Salmon – their tenth red card of the season.
Despite playing into the gale force wind and rain in the first half, Rovers passed the ball well, carving the first opening 11 minutes in when skipper Ronan Finn’s fierce shot was deflected out for a corner.
David McAllister and Clarke then combined on the Rovers’ left with Gary Shaw just unable to meet the inviting cross into the penalty area.
Shaw did connect with a low cross from Simon Madden 28 minutes in, though he couldn’t direct it on goal.
The big Rovers striker was injured in the incident and taken off on a stretcher after receiving treatment on the pitch for several minutes.
Back in the other box, Rovers’ goalkeeper Kevin Horgan shipped a kick to the head from Greene as he came to save a low cross from Gary McCabe after a mistake by Aaron Bolger gifted Bray the opportunity.
Showing no ill-effects, Horgan was promptly off his line right on 45 minutes to clear as Greene bore down on goal onto a ball over the top.
With the conditions having eased for the second half, Rovers continued to play the better football.
Cameron King cleverly dinked McAllister’s pass over a defender only to shoot wide nine minutes after the interval.
A minute later, James Doona’s deep cross from the left bounced over off Peter Cherrie’s crossbar.