TONIGHT WE'RE GONNA' PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999

Devo would love to repeat trick of Bray Cup triumph

- BY GARRY DOYLE

IT is not only the red half of Manchester where 1999 is remembered as the treble year.

The seaside town of Bray has similar memories of a trilogy of FAI Cup finals which eventually ended with the Wicklow team emerging as champions.

If it is hard to believe so much time has since passed then that's partly because Pat Devlin, the then Bray manager, remains a significant figure in the Carlisle Grounds, the place he first entered way back in 1985.

The '99 Cup win was the second time he brought the trophy back to Bray but remains overshadowed by their first from nine years earlier, which took place against a backdrop of Italia 90 fever, and an unexpectedly huge crowd turning up to see them defeat St Francis at Lansdowne Road.

"Yet one is as special as the other," says Devlin of those two Cup triumphs. And it is easy to understand why as Bray only entered the League in 1985.