Bray Wanderers 0-5 Galway United
Enda Curran scored a hat-trick as Galway United trounced Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds.
Striker Curran scored after two minutes before adding a second just before half-time.
The hat-trick arrived on 54 minutes before Ryan Connolly and Padraic Cunningham added further goals to complete the rout as Galway recorded their first points on the road this season to move up to eighth place in the Premier Division table.
Galway charged out of the blocks to take a second minute lead, and might, indeed, have been three goals to the good inside the opening five minutes.
Bray keeper Stephen McGuinness failed to gather Connolly’s corner after just 84 seconds and Curran volleyed to the net.
A minute later Cunningham got free on the right to pick out the unmarked Connolly whose powerful drive was straight at McGuinness when he really should have scored.
With Bray at sixes-and-sevens at the back, a third clear opening arrived for Galway within a further two minutes.
Again, the Tribesmen should have found the net, but Jake Keegan’s downward header from Connolly’s free kick bounced wide.
And the chances just kept coming for Tommy Dunne’s side. Keegan played Cunningham in on 11 minutes with the striker dragging his cross shot wide of the far post with Gary Shanahan arriving just too late to get the vital touch.
Bray gradually settled, if only for a short spell, and were close to levelling with their first effort on goal on 23 minutes.
Michael Barker’s superb diagonal ball from right-back found the run of skipper David Cassidy whose side-foot volley wasn’t far wide of Ger Hanley’s left-hand post.
Galway remained in control, though, and got a deserved second goal on 41 minutes.
Shanahan ran past Daniel O’Reilly a little too easily on the right to cross for Curran to score with a cushioned header.
Galway resumed where they left off into the second half, wasting a glorious chance of a third goal two minutes in. Cunningham ghosted past Bray defender Hugh Douglas on the left to bring a decent save with his feet from McGuinness before Curran completed his hat-trick on 54 minutes.
Colm Horgan’s quick free caught Bray asleep and Curran ran into the inside right channel to rifle a crisp right-foot shot to the roof of the net.
Connolly then pounced on a loose ball on 65 minutes to unleash a 35-yard left-foot shot that flew in off a post.
Ten minutes later Cunningham turned on the ball on the edge of the area to shoot home the fifth.
Bray Wanderers: Stephen McGuinness; Michael Barker, Alan McNally, Hugh Douglas, Daniel O’Reilly (Aidan Cooney 71); Adam Hanlon, Graham Kelly (Luke Gallagher 77), Ryan McEvoy, Peter McGlynn; David Cassidy; Dave Scully (Emeka Onwubiko 58).
Galway United: Ger Hanley; Colm Horgan, Sami Oji, Stephen Walsh, Marc Ludden; Gary Shanahan (Conor Barry 76), Paul Sinnott (David O'Leary 63), Ryan Connolly, Jake Keegan; Enda Curran (Alex Byrne 69), Padraic Cunningham.
Referee: Dave McKeon (Dublin).
