Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup Quarter-Final

DIT 0-19 UCD 0-17

By John Fallon at Belfield

Dublin Institute of Technology advanced to the semi-finals of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup when they finished strongly to defeat UCD in a tight contest at Belfield.

DIT will now meet DCU in the semi-finals next week with one of them destined to reach the final for the first time.

The teams were deadlocked 10 times during a game where few goal chances were created, but DIT came with a poweful finish to secure the win.

The fact that there was little between the teams was obvious in the opening half when they were level seven times.

But UCD finished well with DJ Foran in superb shooting form and they opened up a lead 0-11 to 0-8 at the break.

The Waterford star accounted for all but two of UCD’s tally in the opening half, seven of them came from frees.

The impressive James Maher at midfielder and Seamus Flanagan fired over the other scores for UCD.

Westmeath’s Niall O’Brien scored half of DIT’s opening half tally, with two of his four points coming from frees, and one from a 65. 

His Westmeath colleague Niall Mitchell got two points while Kilkenny’s Liam Blanchfield scored the point of the half with a good effort from the left wing.

Foran extended UCD’s lead to four less than a minute after the restart, but Niall Kelly and O’Brien hit back for DIT and by the 40th minute they were again level at 0-13 apiece.

O’Brien pointed DIT in front before two massive points from Foran saw the lead swing back in UCD’s favour.

However, it was DIT who seized the initiative with three frees in succession from O’Broen to lead by 0-17 to 0-15 with eight minutes left.

Waterford’s Tadgh de Burca cut the gap to the minimum and then O’Brien and Luke Scanlon exchanged points, but UCD couldn’t draw level and DIT finished in style when Dublin’s Conor Ryan pointed a sideline.

Scorers for DIT: Niall O’Brien 0-11 (9fs, 165), Niall Mitchell 0-2, Conor Ryan 0-1 (sideline), Liam Blanchfield 0-1, Robbie Greville 0-1, Fiontan McGibb 0-1, Jonathan McGuirke 0-1, Niall Walsh 0-1.

Scorers for UCD: DJ Foran 0-13 (9fs), James Maher 0-1, Seamus Flanagan 0-1, Tadhg de Burca 0-1, Luke Scanlon 0-1.

DIT: Paddy McKenna (Kildare); Warren Kavanagh (Wicklow), Thomas Doyle (Westmeath), Philip Cass (Kilkenny); Eoghan Dunne (Dublin), Derek McNicholas (Westmeath), Luke Kelly (Dublin); Jonathan McGuirke (Dublin), Robbie Greville (Westmeath); Niall Mitchell (Westmeath), Patrick Maher (Tipperary), Fiontan McGibb (Dublin); Niall O’Brien (Westmeath), Liam Blanchfield (Kilkenny), Conor Ryan (Dublin).

Subs: Niall Walsh (Kilkenny) for McGuirke (30).

UCD: Darragh Hughes (Wexford); Brian Quigley (Wexford), Rob Lennon (Kilkenny), Gary Molloy (Wexford); Michael Cody (Kilkenny), Tadgh de Burca (Waterford), Padraic Guinan (Offaly); James Maher (Kilkenny), John Joe Ryan (Tipperary); DJ Foran (Waterford), Darren Codd (Wexford), Jack Mullaney (Waterford); Seamus Flanagan (Limerick), Tom Phelan (Kilkenny), Paul O’Connor (Waterford).

Subs: Luke Scanlon (Kilkenny) for O’Connor (40), Rory Purcell (Tipperary) for Lennon (50).

REFEREE: Paud O’Dwyer (Carlow).