Bray Wanderers F.C. |
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Bray Wanderers Football Club was founded in 1922, when a dispute between members of St. Kevins G.A.A. club led to some of them breaking away and forming a football club. By the late 1920's the town of bray had four teams, three in the junior ranks and one in the League of Ireland, Bray Unknowns. Wanderers at this time were one of the more established clubs and won the Miller Cup in the 1927/28 season. Wanderers went into decline and it wasn't until 1942, when they reformed, that they did anything of note. They joined the AUL, Division 3, and during this season they reached the quarter finals of the Leinster Shield but were expelled for fielding an illegal player, the following two seasons they lost the league in a playoff. In the 1946/47 season Wanderers gained promotion to Division 2, but were expelled when their B team failed to turn up to a match. They were re-admitted the following season and gained promotion to Division 1. In 1950/51 Wanderers had a successful year claiming the FAI junior cup and losing in the final of the Leinster Junior Cup. Bray Wanderers repeated their success in the junior cup in 1953/54 and also completed the double taking the 1st Division crown. The following year Bray decided to leave the AUL and join the Leinster Senior League, they did so because of new rules not allowing any previous cup winning players participate in cup competitions. In 1955/56 Wanderers won the Leinster cup and repeated the success two years later while also winning the LSL the same season. In the following years the team completed a three-in-a-row, and also reached the 1st round of the FAI cup. Bray left the LSL and rejoined the AUl in 1960, but alas went into decline. By 1973 Bray Unknowns were representing Bray in the LSL, they changed to Bray Wanderers.. Despite the club having problems they captured the Metropolitan cup in 1975/76, they continued having ground problems, but in 1985 joined the League of Ireland. In 1990 the club had it's most famous moment when they captured the FAI Cup infront of 30,000 people in Lansdowne Road, beating St. Francis 3-0. Bray were in Europe, but were unlucky to go down to Trabzonspor 3-1 after drawing 1-1 in Tolka Park. Wanderers reached the Premier Division in 1990 and stayed there for two seasons before going back down, it took three years to come back up under the guidance of Pat Devlin. In the 1996 season Bray won the Division one title and returned to the Premier Division. The following seasons were followed by relegation, promotion, relegation. In the 1999/00 season Bray returned to the Premier division, winning Div one on the last day of the season.1998/99 saw Bray lift the FAI Cup after 2 replays and perform well against Gothenborg in Europe. This year saw bray surprise everyone, they are far from relegation again and with players like, Eddie Gormley, Colm Tresson and Jason Byrne the club are challenging for European Qualification. |