Sean Maguire bade farewell to the SSE Airtricity League with an outstanding individual peformance as he scored one and created another as Cork City stretched their lead to 15 points at the Carlisle Grounds.
Maguire scored early in the first half and laid on a late second for Jimmy Keohane in what was his final league game for the Leesiders before joining English Championship side Preston North End next week.
And there'll be none happier to see the back of him than Bray centre-halves Conor Kenna and Hugh Douglas, the latter of whom endured a particularly torrid afternoon attempting to keep track of the evasive striker.
City boss John Caulfield made four changes to the side that lost 1-0 to AEK Larnaca in the Europa League on Thursday, with Gearóid Morrissey and Preston-bound Kevin O'Connor among those rested.
The visitors signalled their intent from the off in front of a large away support, Kieran Sadlier picking out an unmarked Maguire in the middle, but the striker glanced his header past the post.
Lightning rarely strikes once, let alone twice, where Maguire mistakes are concerned and the striker opened the scoring after 13 minutes from a move he started in midfield.
The Kilkenny man held the ball up under the challenge of Hugh Douglas and sprayed it out to Karl Sheppard before getting in the box to send home a bullet header from Steven Beattie's cross.
Seven minutes from the break he thought he had number two as he turned Douglas just inside the Bray half and drove into the box, twisting past Kenna and rounding Cherrie, only for the Scot's big arm to reach back and grab the ball off his toe with the goal wide open.
The home side rallied in the second half and Aaron Greene had a great chance to equalise as he skinned Griffin down the right and carried on past Delaney but could only direct his shot into the side netting.
Gary McCabe bustled the right side of the net five minutes later as he free kick was missed by Mark McNulty, but it was harshly ruled out for a foul on either McNulty or Garry Buckley.
Caulfield brought on Achille Campion on the hour and went with two up top as he looked to infuse some added urgency into City's play, and it nearly reaped immediate dividends.
🎥 Full time. Brilliant support once again! #CCFC84 pic.twitter.com/DmYV1b741E
— Cork City FC (@CorkCityFC) July 16, 2017
Maguire picked the ball up deep in midfield and beat two men before wrong-footing Cherrie with a shot that rebound off the inside of the post, and Cherrie did wonderfully to tip Campion's follow-up over.
McCabe drilled a free kick wide in the closing stages, after Ryan Delaney and McNulty were booked in a melée as Conor McCormack lay injured at the other end, as Bray scented the possibility of an upset.
But inevitably it was to be Maguire who carved out the insurance goal, cutting out Kenna's loose clearance and crossing for Keohane to convert at the far post.
Bray Wanderers: Peter Cherrie; Keith Buckley, Hugh Douglas, Conor Kenna, Kevin Lynch; Mark Salmon (Darragh Noone 71), John Sullivan, Jason Marks, Ryan Brennan, Gary McCabe; Aaron Greene.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Steven Beattie, Alan Bennett, Ryan Delaney, Shane Griffin; Conor McCormack, Garry Buckley (Achille Campion 60), Jimmy Keohane; Karl Sheppard (Connor Ellis 88), Kieran Sadlier, Sean Maguire (Sean O'Mahony 90+2).
Referee: Robert Harvey (Dublin).
