Jay O’Shea scored an late, late winner for Galway United as the Tribesmen recorded a vital 2-1 win over Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds.

The Ireland under-21 international latched onto man-of-the-match John Russell’s sublime pass to confidently shoot past Chris O’Connor to snatch all three points with 90 minutes up on the watch.

A big win for Galway it may be, but the result was cruel on Bray who deserved at least a point, but find themselves still rooted to the foot of the table.

Despite Paddy Kavanagh crying off after pulling a hamstring in the warm-up, Bray sprung into the lead in the fifth minute with a smartly executed goal.

A quickly-taken long, low free-kick out of the Bray defence from Dave Webster surprised the Galway defence and Shane O’Neill controlled the ball to turn Garry Breen superbly and drill a left foot shot from the edge of the box to the corner of the net for a well-taken first senior goal of the 20-year-old's career.

A free-kick at the other end came within inches of bringing Galway level on 28 minutes. Derek O’Brien appeared to have initially lost control from his captain O’Shea’s square free-kick, but recovered well to turn and crack a right-foot shot off Chris O’Connor’s left-hand post.

That set the tone for Galway to finish the half the strongly. Shane Guthrie headed over from an O’Shea corner before Bray survived a right scramble in the final minute when another O’Shea delivery wasn’t cleared and Vinny Faherty eventually had his shot deflected over the bar off Bray captain Derek Pender.

Galway maintained the pressure into the second half with John Russell and substitute Jason Molloy having efforts on goal before they deservedly levelled on 57 minutes.

Another O’Shea corner picked out Molloy at the back post and his header deflected into the path of Breen who volleyed crisply to the net.

Bray Wanderers: O’Connor; Pender, Webster, Foran, Knight (Massey, 56 mins.); D. O‘Neill (Coughlan, 38 mins.), Brennan (Mulroy, 77 mins.), Mulcahy, Shields, McCabe; S. O’Neill.

Galway United: Ryan; Conneely, Breen, Guthrie, O’Toole (Davoren, 74 mins.); O’Shea, Russell, Kelly, McBrien (Molloy, h/t), O’Brien; Faherty (Murphy, 67 mins).

Referee: Alan Kelly (Cork).