Dean’s double sinks Seagulls
Ebbe fires Athlone Town to victory against Wanderers
ATHLONE TOWN 2 BRAY WANDERERS 1
A STRIKER in form for a side in form made all the difference as Dean Ebbe put Bray Wanderers to the sword on Friday evening.
Strikes in the fourth and 55th minute from Ebbe – his eighth and ninth goals of the season – had Athlone in control of the tie before Paul Murphy fired the Seagulls back into contention on 62 minutes.
Murphy would concede a penalty 15 minutes from time that saw Ebbe denied by Stephen McGuinness but Athlone hung on to stay in third, with Ian Ryan’s side dropping to fifth.
Athlone Town enjoyed the dream start. Just three minutes had elapsed when Carl Mujaguzil laid it off to Jamar Campion-Hinds.
He was hugging the touchline when he received but he looked up and lifted an inch-perfect pass into the box. Dean Ebbe had gotten goal-side of Paul Murphy and he coolly nodded it over the out-rushing McGuinness.
Ebbe is having the kind of season that every striker dreams of. At the other end, a fine run from Freddie Turley saw him lay it left to Kieran Cruise. He whipped in a deep cross and Cristian Magerusan threw himself at the ball but was inches from connecting.
Magerusan did get on the end of Shane Griffin’s free-kick in the eighth minute but he sent a difficult header over the crossbar.
Ebbe’s presence was causing enough of a stir that, in the 21st minute, a long ball from David Torre saw Ebbe wrestling with both Murphy and Jamie Duggan and Murphy elected to hack it behind for a corner.
The visitors had a glorious chance to level matters on 26 minutes. Harry Groome found Griffin on the edge of the area and the man with the bag of tricks slipped it to Magerusan inside the area. He
set himself up beautifully for the strike as he skipped inside his man but his 12-yard effort was brilliantly blocked by Enda Minogue.
An absolutely brilliant, sweeping move littered with one-touch football saw Bray roar forward and Freddie Turley’s clipped cross was met the head of Shane Griffin but
he failed to hit the target.
There was a heart in mouth moment for Darren Craven on the stroke of half-time when he got his head to an Athlone corner and it whizzed narrowly wide for another flag kick but came too close for comfort to his own goal.
Guillermo Almirall would replace
Craven at the break and played a part in Athlone’s goal. Bray dealt with an Athlone corner and Almirall drove out of defence with the ball.
His pass was brilliantly cut out and Jarlath Jones picked it up before subtly helping it over the top of the static Bray defence to
Ebbe. He was the coolest man in the stadium as he lifted it over the advanced McGuinness to make it 2-0.
An Athlone blunder almost giftwrapped Bray a way back into the tie within three minutes. Minogue took too long on the ball and his pass was blocked by Griffin but
Minogue made amends as he flung himself at the feet of Griffin and smothered his shot.
Jones then played a poor back pass that looked to have set Almirall free but Dylan Hand made up for his team-mate with a perfect sliding tackle to take it off Almirall’s toe.
The deficit was halved on 62. Griffin’s corner was flapped at by Minogue. Duggan headed it downwards and his defensive partner Murphy lashed to the roof of the net.
Less than a minute later, another Griffin delivery was cleared to the edge of the area and Magerusan’s strike from 20 yards clipped the crossbar.
Athlone, and Ebbe, should have put the seal on the three points with 15 minutes remaining on the clock. Mujaguzi was through on goal but got held up and Murphy wrapped his arms around him in and pulled him away in what was closer to a wrestling move than a tackle.
It was surely one of the easiest decisions Marc Lynch will ever make.
But Ebbe’s spot-kick was saved by the trailing leg of McGuinness as he dived to his left.
Ebbe would go on to be crowed man of the match for his two excellent finishes but most pleasing thing about the evening for him was probably that his penalty miss did not come back to haunt him. ATHLONE TOWN: Enda Minogue;
Amardo Akeem Oakley, Dylan Hand, Jarlath Jones, Brian Torre; Matthew Leal, Dan McKenna, Carl Mujaguzi; Jamar Campion-Hinds, Dean Ebbe, Ruben Manuel Oliviera Ferreira. SUBS: Jamal Ibrahim for Campion-Hinds (53); Oisin Duffy for Mujaguzi (90+1). Not used: Andrew Stuart Trainor, Shane Forbes, Gabriel Padilla, Divine Izekor, Gideon Tetteh, Roscoe Rubinstein, Ciaran Nolan.
BRAY WANDERERS: Stephen McGuinness; Max Murphy, Paul Murphy, Jamie Duggan, Evan Osam; Freddie Turley, Darren Craven, Harry Groome, Kieran Cruise; Shane Griffin; Cristian Magerusan. SUBS: Guillermo Almirall for Craven (H/T); Zach Nolan for Osam (68); Thomas Morgan for Cruise (83). Not used: Ben Clark, Zayd Abada, Conor Knight, Josh McGlone.
REFEREE: Marc Lynch.
VENUE: Athlone Town Stadium, Athlone.