Kelly choosing to look on the bright side of life

GRAHAM KELLY is choosing to look on the bright side as his time in charge of Bray Wanderers comes to a close.

With his 60-day caretaker period expiring before the Seagulls’ visit to Shamrock Rovers, Kelly’s last act as boss would have been guiding them to a 3-1 win over St. Patrick’s Athletic - not a bad way to sign off.

A victory for Sligo Rovers and a draw for Limerick elsewhere slightly dented the feel-good factor following the victory but Kelly is happy to have cut Limerick’s advantage over them by two points.

“We played a really good side on Friday and I think we justified our 3-1 win. I thought we were excellent from start to finish. Going in at half time, we’d an excellent chance to go 1-0 up through Daniel Kelly but the attitude in the second half and the performance (was excellent) - we really lifted the tempo and I though we thoroughly deserved the win.

“We spoke about it at half time and we knew that we couldn’t rest on a decent first half and we’d have to up it again to get something from the game. We knew Pat’s would come at us a little bit and once we got the first goal I think it just settled us down a little bit. They were three good goals.

“We’ve said all along that we can only look at the team above us and at the moment, that’s Limerick. It’s seven points but there’s a lot of football to be played so we’ll keep plugging away.”

While Bray’s top flight status is a long-term plan, Kelly’s tenure is very much now in the short-term and he doesn’t know yet if he will be allowed to take charge in Tallaght.

“I don’t know! We spoke already because technically Friday could be my last game in charge with the Rovers game moving to the Saturday. My 60 days will actually just fall short. Myself, Martin (O’Connor) and Gerry Mulvey have spoken about it and they’ve spoken to the FAI so we’ll know more during the week. It’s up in the air at the moment.”

Whether it’s Graham Kelly, Martin Russell or someone else in charge in the coming weeks, they can expect a great boost with many Bray aces nearing a return from injury. Rhys Gorman and Aaron Greene have both been given the green light to return to running in straight lines and even their presence is a welcome boost to the injury ravaged squad.

“To see them back at the training pitch is great and to see them out on the training pitch is great. Likewise, getting the two Jakes back today gave us a little bit of a boost and you could see when they went on, they brought a bit of energy to it as well. The more players we can get back, the better for the squad.”