Bray have too much guile for North District

at Ashford

Stephen Morgan briefly put the group side ahead from a free on ten minutes, but Dessie Kelly changed all that a minute later.

He surged forward, gave and took a couple of return passes and sent a ground shot past Peter Byrne in goal. Matt Gilbert immediately replied with a point from a free but three points from Aaron Murphy, Gavin Dowling and a fisted point from John Henderson put a gap between the sides at this stage.

John Henderson ran through and fisted another point on 18 minutes and the North District team was beginning to wilt a little. Matt Gilbert pointed a free for their last score of the half at 20 minutes.

Bray scored five more points from play before the half time break - Marc Lennon, a long range effort from Niall Gaffney, another from Dessie Kelly, Marc Lennon again and finally a beauty from Aaron Murphy, who stepped inside his man and curled over a point from the outside of his right boot.

With a scoreline of 1-10 to 0-4 at the break, North District was glad to get to the changing rooms to regroup for the second half. They began well when Stephen Morgan pointed a free in the first minute followed by a Matt Gilbert point from a ’45 a minute later.

But, unfortunately there it ended. Their next score was a point from substitute Brendan Barton one minute into injury time.

Not that Bray Emmets put their dominance on the scoreboard either.

Dessie Kelly, centre half back, was their only scorer until the 29th minute. He scored a point from play after four minutes and two from frees after nine and ten minutes. Bray went almost 20 minutes without scoring as the game wound down to its conclusion. Then within a minute, Rory Breslin and John Henderson added two goals to finish off.

While Bray probably dropped their intensity somewhat in the second period, a gap of 20 minutes without a score will worry them. For their part, North District battled valiantly in the second half and had kept the scoreline to a deficit of just one point for that period until the last minute.

With some players still to come in they may take some heart from their resistance in the second half but they will need to plan on scoring more. BRAY EMMETS SCORERS: Dessie Kelly (1-4, 2 frees), John Henderson (1-2), Rory Breslin (1-0), Aaron Murphy (0-3), Marc Lennon (0-2), Gavin Dowling (0-1), Niall Gaffney (0-1). NORTH DISTRICT SCORERS: Matt Gilbert (0-4, 2 frees, 1 ‘45), Stephen Morgan (0-2 frees), Brendan Barton (0-1). BRAY EMMETS: Paul O’Keeffe, Shane Lohan, Dara Lohan, Conor Power, Niall Gaffney, Dessie Kelly, Ben McCormack, Aaron Murphy, Rory Breslin, Mark Lenihan, John Henderson, Eoin McCormack, Gavin Dowling, Marc Lennon, Mikey Browne. Subs. - Cathal Dowling for Shane Lohan, Sean O’Neill for Ben McCormack, Cathal McGee for Mikey Browne, Conor O’Doherty for Dara Lohan. NORTH DISTRICT: Peter Byrne (An Tochar), Dan Kelly (Enniskerry), Luke O’Callaghan (Kilmacanogue), Luke Reilly (Kilcoole), Simon Doyle (Kilmacanogue), Eoin Keddy (Kilmacanogue), Colm Nolan (Enniskerry), Andrew Molloy (Kilmacanogue), Vinnie Quigley (Kilcoole), Niall Meldon (Kilmacanogue), Matt Gilbert (Kilcoole), Gavin Barton (Enniskerry), Anthony O’Neill (Enniskerry), Ronan Keddy (Kilcoole), Stephen Morgan (Kilmacanogue). Subs. - Aaron Creavin for Colm Nolan (inj), Declan Roper for Vinnie Quigley, Luke Wren for Ronan Keddy (inj), Brendan Barton for Anthony O’Neill, Conor O’Toole for Matt Gilbert. REFEREE: Eugene O’Brien.