Cobh Ramblers keep title hopes alive with 3-1 win against Bray Wanderers

It was a case of second v third tonight in a superbly entertaining match at St. Colmans Park which saw Cobh Ramblers run out 3-1 winners against Bray Wanderers to not only guarantee themselves second spot, but also remain in the title race as bottom of the table Athlone Town held league leaders Dundalk to a 1-1 draw.

Bray opened the scoring after just 90 seconds when Billy O’Neill netted, however, that was cancelled out four minutes later when Cian Murphy equalised with a powerful low right-footed shot beating Bray keeper Jimmy Corcoran.

Ramblers piled on the pressure but the Bray heads didn’t drop and it was pure end to end stuff with Ramblers having several golden opportunities to take the lead, however, that lead did come in the 44th minute when Barry Coffey’s left-footed strike left the Bray keeper with no chance, earning the Ramblers player his 25th goal of the season and a well deserved 2-1 lead into the break.

The second half was much the same as the first with both sides manning their battle stations and creating opportunities. The killer blow for Bray came in the 80th minute when substitute John O’Donovan, who had only been on the field about 20 seconds, netted his first League of Ireland goal, securing all three points for Ramblers. 100% given by the players tonight and a stand-out performance from Jonas Hakkinen at centre-back and MOTM Rhys Gourdie.

The gap at the top has now been narrowed to just four points with two games to go. Ramblers travel to Bishopsgate next week to take on Longford Town while Dundalk entertain Finn Harps at Oriel Park, and no doubt all Cobh Ramblers fans will be looking for Harps to do them a favour before going into the last game of the season in what could be a title decider at St.Colmans Park on Friday 17th October against………. Dundalk FC.