Davy Fitzgerald’s LIT experienced a rare defeat in Limerick as Donal Burke’s double strike helped Eoin Roche’s DCU to victory in this Group C Fitzgibbon Cup clash.
It took an added-time free from Patrick Curran to sneak the win for DCU, but after a dominant first-half they were deserving winners.
Peter Duggan hit a penalty to lift LIT early in the second-half and Clare’s David Reidy scored their second goal five minutes from time, but despite Duggan levelling the game in added-time, Curran bagged the winner at the other end.
“We were terrible. In the first-half they wanted it way more than we did. In Fitzgibbon hurling you find out what a hurler is made of. There were a few county hurlers out there they didn’t stand up,” said Fitzgerald afterwards.
Burke hit his first goal after 11 minutes and when Curran stroked home DCU’s second they were six points clear and eventually led 2-7 to 0-8 at the break.
Duggan was on song from placed balls and hit 1-11 for his side, but Burke and Curran were equally accurate at the other end and DCU took the points.
P Curran 1-6 (5f), D Burke 2-3 (2f), A Maddock, P Foley, K Doyle, R McBride, J O’Connor, F Whitley 0-1 each.
P Duggan 1-11 (1-0pen, 9f, 1’65), D Reidy 1-2, O Kelly 0-2, D Byrnes, A La Touche Cosgrave 0-1 each
O Foley (Wexford); Paul O’Dea (Dublin), E O’Donnell (Dublin), Conor McSweeney (Limerick); A Maddock (Wexford), C Delaney (Kilkenny), D Grey (Dublin); D Mullen (Kilkenny), F Whitley (Dublin); P Foley (Wexford), K Doyle (Westmeath), D Burke (Dublin); R McBride (Dublin), J Donnelly (Kilkenny), P Curran (Waterford).
P Kelly (Dublin) for Doyle h-t; D Brennan (Kilkenny) for McSweeney 44; J O’Connor (Wexford) for Whitley 50, C Burke (Dublin) for Kelly 57.
C Hedderman (Limerick); J Quaid (Limerick), K Bennett (Waterford), E Quilty (Limerick); D Byrnes (Limerick), S Ryan (Tipperary), S Gleeson (Clare); D Reidy (Clare), R Byrnes (Tipperary); D Conroy (Clare), W Connors (Tipperary), A La Touche Cosgrave (Limerick); J McCarthy (Clare), P Duggan (Clare), O Kelly (Offaly)
D Moran (Tipperary) for Quilty 14; M O’Keeffe (Cork) for R Byrnes h-t; R Murphy (Galway) for Conroy 41.
Alan Kelly (Galway).