Diamond Kits

@TheSeagullChat fuck sake

@DIAMOND_KITS Billy missed, Mark Chidi got injured

Should be 2 or 3 up, a missed penalty, a goal line clearance, and our best central defender gets injured. Sums up Bray at the moment.

@lpt1905 deserves time to turn it around imo has worked wonders since he’s come in

I love Heffo to bits, always will, he has taken us so far and the memories will not disappear, but I'm starting to think his time might be up.

@BrayWanderers if I ever see that centre-half partnership again I’m putting me season ticket in the microwave

@BrayWanderers loan a few more 13 year olds with no senior experience in the Summer window should fix all the problems 👍

90+4' Full Time in Athlone Athlone Town (2-1) Bray Wanderers #Uptheseagulls

@BrayWanderers not surprised in the slightest

85' Goal for Athlone Town Athlone Town (2-0) Bray Wanderers #Uptheseagulls

@TheSeagullChat was wondering bro haha…great analysis tho was spot on with a lot of what you said

@TheSeagullChat Jamie Ryan hasn’t played this season? you mean Ryan Kelly?

Round one (and the Longford game) in review This will be a consistent article that I publish after every round (set of nine games against each team in the division) to discuss the team. This was initially supposed to come out after the Finn Harps match, however I wanted to wait until after we played Longford to confirm if the problems identified here were confined to a handful of poor performances or if they were symptoms of a larger problem. Unfortunately the latter seems to be correct. Before going into this, remember that we’re still just one win from potentially going back into 2nd. The situation Bray are in now is nothing compared to that of other clubs in the division, or to the Bray of 2022. What is frustrating is that an avoidable downturn in form is once again preventing us from being competitive with the top of the league. Last year’s horrible start and poor late-season meant that we never really competed with Dundalk, who we were able to beat on our day. This year we should be within a couple of points of Cork at this stage but now they’re already almost out of sight. On to the review: Goalkeeper: Jimmy Corcoran would probably be one of the better goalkeepers in the Premier Division so having him in goal for us is incredible. Last season he alone probably saved us 10 goals and is probably on track to do the same. Can’t value him enough. As a captain he doesn’t yet have the pull of Killian Cantwell, but he’ll grow into that role. Defence: The primary centre-back paring of Jamie Duggan and Declan Osagie just isn’t "imposing" enough. On their own merits, both are very talented players and are probably picked to start most games for their ball playing abilities. But neither are particularly threatening to face off against - far too often we've conceded goals because support runners just blow past them. Mark Chidi seems to be the answer to that problem, his performance against Cork being incredible, but it’s clear he’ll only be fully fit maybe half the time. Alain Kizenga and Jamie Ryan (when he plays LB) have been crucial to both our defence and our attacking ability. Both have been incredible so far, and at this point they’re two of our best attacking assets as well. Kizenga is probably the most underrated player in the division. Meanwhile Dean O’Shea has been solid but not spectacular, although his performance against Longford on Saturday was one of the few positives for us in that game. Midfield: Our best area so far, Seán Brennan and Ben McCormack have been incredible and have consistently bailed us out this season not only with goals but also performances. Same goes for Ryan Kelly, who is as good in midfield as in defence. Richard Ferizaj has also been at his best when played as an attacking midfielder instead of the handful of times he’s been out wide. Cian Doyle has been more inconsistent, and his temper has been more of a liability this season. That being said he’s still had some very good performances, especially in the first five or so games, but in the past couple he’s been poor. There’s really not much more to say here, Ben, Richard, Ryan, and Seán are all perfectly capable of playing a division above and they’ve been our saviours. But the fact that we always end up relying on them for goals is a testament to just how poor we are up front. Forwards: Where do you begin. The front three just doesn’t work. Has there ever been a team that plays a front three, yet whose forwards have scored less goals than that team’s defenders or midfielders? Achara is a great hold up player (like Danú last year) but he has no support because he’s always put up there on his own. Dan Ring is a Peter Crouch-esque frontman but he’s also on his own when he replaces Achara, who he should be playing with in a front two. That is, if Billy isn’t played up front. It’s obviously awkward with him at the moment because the club don't want him to get injured before he goes to Bristol, but he's been a shadow of what he was last year. His original position when he broke through at the Academy level was a central striker and I think him in the centre alongside either Achara or Ring would bring out the best in everyone. That’s not to say tactics and positioning are entirely to blame, the players themselves are just as responsible. It is genuinely disgraceful that Achara hasn’t scored yet - I felt sorry for him until the Harps game, when in the box instead of shooting from point blank range he decided to let the ball bounce so he could go for a bicycle kick instead. Watching Dan at the moment is just depressing as he realises he’s never going to get to show his skill in this system, but in these past few games his confidence has been so low he genuinely seems to be avoiding the ball. When Tyreik Sammy gets shooting opportunities he just puts the ball right at the goalkeeper, or across the face of the goal. That’s when he’s not offside. On the rarer occasions when Billy gets the ball he goes down far too easily looking for penalties. As bad as they’ve played so far, Tyreik and Dan were incredible in preseason and last year’s youth academies for Shelbourne, who play at a higher level than we do. They didn’t lose that talent the second they stepped through the door of the Carlisle. Management: Paul Heffernan has been a magician since becoming manager. Last year he literally took a youth squad with five senior players to within 70 minutes of the Premier Division. In 2024 he took a dejected, underachieving squad to the playoff final too. He deserves a huge amount of time to get this season right, both from the owners and fans. But the hallmarks of his best managerial traits; adaptability, zero tolerance for egos, and ability to go through the centre with brute force when the team needs to, have all vanished so far. His refusal to change the front three when it so obviously isn’t working is seriously concerning. Tactically, playing the ball out the back from Osagie every time hasn’t actually been so terrible, the problem is that the whole end game is to snake the ball through to one of the front three who will either quickly lose it or fail to score when they should. His player selection has been poor too. Richard Ferizaj starting on the bench most games is maddening. While Azende is promising and gets the ball moving, he’s inconsistent and every time he’s replaced by Conor Knight the latter is the better player. Ethan Cheese getting game time is fantastic but the amount of other hyped academy prospects who are on senior contracts but never even on the bench is strange. If John Bilili Sesay and Benjamin Fagbemi aren’t good/fit enough to warrant either starting or being substituted on, why have them on the bench at all? Might as well give those places to academy players and give them valuable experience and game time. Ultimately, Paul has turned seemingly doomed situations into great successes before and we should give him total backing now to do the same. Ratings for this round: J.Corcoran8️⃣ A.Kizenga8️⃣ J.Duggan5️⃣ M.Chidi6️⃣ C.Knight6️⃣ S.Brennan8️⃣ D.Ring2️⃣ R.Ferizaj7️⃣ I.Achara3️⃣ D.Osagie4️⃣ A.Azende5️⃣ R.Kelly8️⃣ K.Tucker4️⃣ C.Doyle5️⃣ B.McCormack9️⃣⭐️ B.O’Neill4️⃣ T.Sammy3️⃣ D.O’Shea5️⃣ E.Cheese5️⃣ P.Heffernan3️⃣

@BrayWanderers sigh

Here's your starting lineup for tonight 🟢⚪️ #Uptheseagulls

@TheSeagullChat Ethan and Leon need a start badly two best performers in pre-season

@DIAMOND_KITS Like you said, Leon Keogh deserves game time. Even if he does nothing, that’s not a regression from what we have now.

Hard to find words for that. Something has to change. Paul Heffernan has worked wonders for us but the fact that he still doesn’t know who our best XI is or accept that a front three isn’t working is criminal. A rundown of our season so far will be published during the week.

@andrewoneill86 @BrayWanderers that’s it? Azende not good enough…Achara not good enough…Osagie and Duggan as a cb partnership has been fucking awful…recruitment in the summer was abysmal

@BrayWanderers Tyreik sammy - not good enough Declan osaige - not playing well Dan Ring - not good enough Players either need to be dropped or really up their game. These last few performances have been shocking.

@BrayWanderers all the quality we lost in the summer and all the shite we brought through the door and people genuinely thought we had a chance at a title 😂…embarrassing

@BrayWanderers piss poor lads should be ashamed

FT' Game ends in defeat, safe home to all that travelled. Longford (1-0) Bray #Uptheseagulls

@DIAMOND_KITS it can't go on like this can it?

Missing these two right now

@BrayWanderers title challengers 😂😂😂

71' goal for the hosts Longford (1-0) Bray #Uptheseagulls

@redlad27 @BrayWanderers we have a striker capable of scoring he just doesn’t make the squad every week

@BrayWanderers Not good enough at all performances have been shocking. We have no strikers capable of actually scoring goals and if something doesnt change soon we are in big trouble. Performances are brutal end of story

90+4' Full time at the Carlisle It ends level, thank you for your continued support. 🟢⚪️ Bray Wanderers (2-2) Finn Harps #Uptheseagulls

@TheSeagullChat our best forward doesn’t even make the bench it’s fucking insanity

@DIAMOND_KITS Would like to see Billy being given a chance up front seeing as that was actually his original preferred position. Or at least SOME change. At this point our forwards have scored less goals than both our midfield and defense

Absolutely brutal second half that. Every weakness that we’ve managed to more or less cover up so far was brutally exposed tonight. Time to start questioning if continuing to play a front three is feasible. Onto Monday.