Dominant second half sees UCD secure comfortable win
UCD overcame Cork IT and secured a place in the third round of the Sigerson Cup with a strong second half display sealing victory for the Dublin college at Belfield.
The turning point of the game came just before half-time when Cork IT's Paul Walsh was sent off - with the visitors failing to score thereafter.
UCD manager John Divilly admitted that Walsh's dismissal was pivotal.
He said: “There was nothing between the sides for most of the game and we were fortunate they went down a man and we stepped it up a gear after that. The man going off was the difference but I thought our guys were very rusty."
Daniel Dineen opened the scoring for CIT with a point and two further scores from Mark Buckley and Kevin O’Donovan gave the Cork college a 0-3 to 0-0 advantage. Barry McGinn responded with a point for UCD, but further scores from O’Donovan and Dineen gave CIT a four-point lead.
Dineen and O’Donovan were very impressive for the visitors in the opening half and corner-back Chris O’Donoghue added a well-taken score to stretch his side's advantage to five points.
O’Donovan registered his third point before Matthew Bradley’s effort gave CIT a seven-point cushion, with the Cork side holding a deserved 0-8 to 0-1 lead with 18 minutes played.
UCD then began to find their feet and started to drag themselves back into contention. Divilly's men had the game's opening goal after 20 minutes with Conor Hartley on target following an excellent pass from Conor McCarthy.
Dineen responded with two points for CIT, but Monaghan star Conor McCarthy showed his class with UCD's second goal after an excellent move involving Con O’Callaghan and Barry McGinn.
But then came the dismissal of midfielder Walsh who was sent off just before half time after picking up a second yellow card for dragging down Con O’Callaghan. Things went from bad to worse for the Cork college shortly afterwards as Gavin O’Brien was black-carded for a late tackle on Cian O’Connor.
Cork IT held a 0-10 to 2-2 lead at half-time but the second half was all one-way traffic. UCD added four points in succession after the interval and their third goal arrived in the 47th minute, after Barry McGinn’s long ball was parried by the goalkeeper and Evan O’Carroll tapped in from close range.
Two late goals from Fiachra Clifford and the excellent Con O’Callaghan gave UCD a 13 point victory and CIT now face the losers of DCU and IT Carlow.
E O’Carroll (1-3, 1f), C O’Callaghan and F Clifford (1-1 each), C Hartley and C McCarthy (1-0 each), B McGinn (0-2), L Silke (0-1).
D Dineen (0-4), K O’Donovan (0-3), C O’Donoghue, M Buckley and M Bradley (0-1 each).
T O’Brien (Monaghan); M Dempsey (Kildare), B Byrne (Kildare), M O’Connor (Wexford); C O’Connor (Dublin), C Meyler (Tyrone), C O’Shea (Dublin); D Gavin (Dublin), S Coen (Mayo); C O’Callaghan (Dublin), C McCarthy (Monaghan), C Hartley (Kildare); F Clifford (Kerry), E O’Carroll (Laois), B McGinn (Monaghan).
L Silke (Galway) for Hartley (h-t), F Connolly (Monaghan) for Byrne (52), D Kennedy (Cavan) for Meyler (55), C Crowley (Carlow) for O’Carroll (55), C Moriarty (Meath) for Clifford (57), N O’Callaghan (Dublin) for C O’Callaghan (57).
C Kelly (Cork); M Lordan (Cork), A Browne (Cork), C O’Donoghue (Kerry); N O’Donoghue (Kerry), E Lavers (Cork), B Sugrue (Kerry); P Walsh (Cork), R Walsh (Cork); K O’Donovan (Cork), D Dineen (Cork), G O’Brien (Kerry); M Buckley (Cork), J Crean (Kerry), M Bradley (Cork).
S Walsh (Cork) for O’Brien (b/c, 30), B Hyland (Tipperary) for Bradley (h-t), S Howard (Cork) for R Walsh (46), B Hodnett (Cork) for Buckley (46), D O’Sullivan (Kerry) for Crean (55).
Seamus Mulhare (Laois).
