Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup Group C

DCU DOCHAS EIREANN 3-15 LIT 2-17

By Declan Rooney at LIT Grounds

Waterford's Patrick Curran landed the winning point as DCU Dochas Eireann shocked favourites LIT in Group C of the Fitzgibbon Cup in Limerick.

Goals in either half from Donal Burke put the Dublin students in command and they held a 2-5 to 0-3 half-time lead. Peter Duggan rattled a penalty and then levelled the game late on, but deep into injury-time Curran won it for the visitors.

DCU had the better of the early exchanges and lead 0-3 to 0-2 after 10 minutes, but they took a firm grip of the game when Burke hit the net with a low shot in the 11th minute.

Duggan’s free cut the deficit briefly, but Curran scored DCU’s second goal in the 16th minute to give them a seven-point cushion.

A free from Duggan and good points from play by Oisin Kelly and Andrew La Touche Cosgrave settled LIT, though. After David Reidy pointed after Kelly’s sideline cut hit the post, LIT only trailed by 2-7 to 0-8 at the interval.

LIT came with a strong start to the second period when Duggan converted a penalty after 34 minutes, while Reidy and Duggan then added points, but with Curran now on free-taking duty DCU remained on top.

Reidy hit a second goal for LIT with five minutes remaining and Duggan converted a couple of placed balls to level matters, but Curran showed great nerve to hit the winner in the 62nd minute.

Scorers for DCU DOCHAS EIREANN: P Curran 1-6 (5fs), D Burke 2-3 (2fs), A Maddock, P Foley, K Doyle, R McBride, J O’Connor, and F Whitley 0-1 each.

Scorers for LIT: P Duggan 1-11 (1-0pen, 9fs, 1’65), D Reidy 1-2, O Kelly 0-2, D Byrnes, A La Touche Cosgrave 0-1 each.

DCU DOCHAS EIREANN: Oisin Foley (Wexford); Paul O’Dea (Dublin), Eoghan O’Donnell (Dublin), Conor McSweeney (Limerick); Aaron Maddock (Wexford), Conor Delaney (Kilkenny), Daire Grey (Dublin); Darren Mullen (Kilkenny), Fergal Whitley (Dublin); Paudie Foley (Wexford), Killian Doyle (Westmeath), Donal Burke (Dublin); Rian McBride (Dublin), John Donnelly (Kilkenny), Patrick Curran (Waterford).

Subs: Paul Kelly (Dublin) for Doyle (HT), Darragh Brennan (Kilkenny) for McSweeney (44), Joe O’Connor (Wexford) for Whitley (50), Conor Burke (Dublin) for Kelly (57).

LIT: Cian Hedderman (Limerick); Jack Quaid (Limerick), Kieran Bennett (Waterford), Eoin Quilty (Limerick); Diarmuid Byrnes (Limerick), Sean Ryan (Tipperary), Shane Gleeson (Clare); David Reidy (Clare), Robert Byrnes (Tipeprary); David Conroy (Clare), Willie Connors (Tipperary), Andrew La Touche Cosgrave (Limerick); Jason McCarthy (Clare), Peter Duggan (Clare), Oisin Kelly (Offaly).

Subs: Darren Moran (Tipperary) for Quilty (14), Mark O’Keeffe (Cork) for R Byrnes (HT), Ronan Murphy (Galway) for Conroy (41).

REFEREE: Alan Kelly (Galway).