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By Ivan Hurley
MATCHDAY 12 sees the kingdom visit the seaside town of Bray in Wicklow for the first time in 2024 as Wanderers are the hosts in the Carlisle Grounds for the latest game in the SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division.
Bray, who are currently fourth after an impressive run of form, host Kerry FC who slipped back to 9th in the table after last week’s defeat to Athlone Town.
In a game where Kerry took the lead, Athlone made all the running and found a way to leave Mounthawk Park with all three points. It was to be Kerry’s first time in nine games tasting defeat after almost seven weeks unbeaten in all competitions, a run everyone in the club was extremely proud of.
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There were some impressive results along the run — a scoreless draw and clean sheet in Ballybofey against Finn Harps, a comeback draw with the students of UCD who were recently relegated from the Premier Division and the famous 3-0 home win over Longford giving the Kerry faithful a hard-earned three points in Mounthawk Park for the first time.
Bray Wanderers come into the game on an impressive run of form, winning their last three on the bounce, scoring eight goals and only conceding one along the way.
But Kerry will take some confidence coming into the game, knowing Bray only had one win in the opening nine games of the season.
But Ian Ryan’s side are well drilled and will look to continue their push for a play-off place in the Carlisle Grounds on Friday night. Peter Grogan has three goals in three games for the Seagulls and he is sure to be one to watch on Friday evening.
The last time these sides met on Matchday 2, the game was delayed due to a severe storm in Mounthawk Park.
A heavy snow shower followed by thunder and lightning saw the game delayed by some 30 minutes as the ground staff worked hard to get the pitch cleared. Bray went on to win a tremendous on-field battle by three goals to two.
Speaking to the media earlier this week, first-team head coach Conor McCarthy gave a positive squad update.
Sean McGrath battled back from a small injury to play a role last week and is fully fit. Jack Kavanagh and Nathan Gleeson both returned last week from longer-term injuries and remain in contention.
There was also good news for Kerry’s number 10 Valerii Dolia. The former Athlone man got good news from his latest scan and is now part of first-team training, but this one might be a game too soon to see him make his Kerry FC debut. After accumulating five yellow cards, Daniel Okwute is suspended for the fixture.
“Bray are a very good side. They came down to Mounthawk Park earlier this season and you can see their quality, with a lot of good players,” said Conor McCarthy.
“The Carlisle Grounds has always been a hard place to go and we are expecting nothing less on Friday. Thompson, Magerusan, they have a lot of attacking threat. Shane Griffin and Harry Groome are very strong in the middle, fellas who are well-able to keep the ball and create opportunities for the players ahead of them.”
“They have a lot of quality as I’ve said before, Bray for me at the start of the year were a team that could challenge Cork at the top, you can see now they are starting to get a couple of wins but hopefully, we can stop that on Friday night.”
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