ELECTRIC IRELAND FITZGIBBON CUP

UCD 4-19 GMIT 2-18

By Kevin Egan at Carnmore GAA club

In an otherwise evenly contested game, UCD’s greater ability to carve out goal chances proved crucial as they secured their place in the knockout stages of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup at GMIT’s expense this afternoon.

Conor O’Shea’s side raised four green flags over the course of the afternoon but it could have been many, many more as they carved open the GMIT defence time and again in the opening half, only to be denied the rattle of twine for one reason or another. Their inside forward pairing of Charlie McGuckin and Paul Crummey linked up very well together to cause GMIT any number of problems, but a couple of superb saves from Eanna Murphy and a couple of poor touches at the last second kept the road end net at Carnmore GAA club intact throughout the opening quarter.

The home side were far more efficient at the other end, picking off some good scores from distance while Brian Keary fizzed a pass into Seán Bleahane for them to hit the front, though they were soon pegged back when Paul Crummey finally found the target after plucking a sliothar out of the clouds on the edge of the square.

An excellent contest developed from there, with a Jack Coyne sideline and an excellent score from Darren McPeake pushing GMIT three points clear, before UCD responded with five in succession, including two from play for Crummey.

Ronan Hayes’ accuracy from dead balls was also a key feature of the game, but GMIT continued to threaten and they drew level again before a huge slice of luck – a shot from Rory Purcell that took a very subtle deflection – evaded Murphy in the GMIT goal.

Bleahane and Mark Kennedy cut the gap back to the bare minimum at half time when they fired over scores in the dying moments of the opening half hour, and that was how it continued in the early stages of the second half, with the sides trading scores and UCD keeping their noses in front.

UCD’s propensity to create a goal chance hadn’t gone away however and while Crummey and McGuckin found it a lot harder to carve open space in the second half, the Dublin students used their running game a lot more, to great effect. Their half back line, led by Huw Lalor of Kilkenny, took control of the tie and reduced GMIT to shooting from distance, and they took a firm grip on proceedings when Kevin Desmond made the net dance with his first possession of the game, just a couple of minutes after coming onto the field.

GMIT continued to scrap hard for ball in the middle third and some good long range frees kept them in the hunt, enough that when Niall Coen hammered the ball past Conor O’Donoghue with seven minutes to play, there was just a goal between the sides.

That brief window of hoped closed almost as quickly as it opened however as Ronan Hayes pulled a high ball down from the clouds, stepped inside the GMIT keeper and was pulled down, before dusting himself off to place the penalty under the goalkeeper’s body and in.

With their two-goal lead restored, it was a case of simply holding firm from then on, which they did easily.

Scorers for UCD: Ronan Hayes 1-11 (1-0 pen, 0-9f, 0-1 ’65), Paul Crummey 1-2, Rory Purcell 1-1, Kevin Desmond 1-0, Eoin Foley, Charlie McGuckin, Eamonn Egan, Conor Scallan & Mick Cody 0-1 each.

Scorers for GMIT: Mark Kennedy 0-7f, Sean Bleahane 1-2, Niall Coen 1-0, Jack Coyne 0-3 (0-1 sideline), Donal Mannion 0-2, Darren McPeake, Ronan Murphy, Cianán Fahy (f) & Darach Fahy 0-1 each.

UCD: Conor O’Donoghue; Matt Kenny, Ian O’Shea, Evan Carroll; Conor Scallan, Michael Purcell, Huw Lalor; Eamonn Egan, Mick Cody; Ronan Hayes, Rory Purcell, Luke McDwyer; Paul Crummey, Charlie McGuckin, Eoin Foley.

Subs: Niall Heffernan for Egan (37), Kevin Desmond for McDwyer (42), Diarmuid O’Floinn for Purcell (46), Sean Carey for Foley (55), Cathal O’Donovan for Carroll (59).

GMIT: Eanna Murphy; Sean Neary, Martin Cullen, Ultan McGlynn; Evan Duggan, Jack Forde, Cianán Fahy; Darren McPeake, Jack Coyne; Brian Keary, Donal Mannion, Ronan Murphy; Mark Kennedy, Sean Bleahane, Enda Egan.

Subs: John Cahalane for Neary (27), Niall Coen for Egan (40), Darach Fahy for Keary (48), Evan Hunt for Kennedy (57)

Referee: Mick Murtagh (Westmeath)