DCU 3-11 St Pat’s 3-5
D.C.U. advanced to the quarter finals of the Division 1 Championship after a comfortable 9 point victory over St.Pats, Drumcondra in a bittery cold St.Clares on Monday afternoon.
The home side were on top through out although St.Pats took the lead early on when former Kilkenny minor captain Canice Maher expertly converted a 21 yard free for the opening goal. Ian Duggan(Pats) and JJ.Lennon (D.C.U.) exchanged a couple of pointed frees soon after before D.C.U. responed with a goal of their own with a classy finnish from Maher’s Kilkenny team-mate Walter Walsh. St.Pats spurned a number of scoring chances before Walsh struck again for a goal with a superlative solo-effort. Walsh, Lennon & corner forward Matt Crowdle added further points before the break as Pats struggled to cope with the well-disciplined intensty of their opponents. At half time they had strecthed their adavantage to 8 points (2-7 to 1-2).
Although a fine overall team performance, every member of the D.C.U. back line shone in the second half as Pats looked to eak a way back into the tie. Time and time again they were denied by Edward Byrne at full back and the magnificent half back line of Brian Aherne, captain Adian Moran & Willie Eviston supplied some telling ammunition for the forwards.A third D.C.U. goal looked inevtiable and Donal McNally duly converted after hesitation in the Pats full back line after 42 minuts. McNally’s Na Fianna team-mate Odhran O’Melidigh added another point as D.C.U. were now disappearing from the student teacher’s collective sight with a 11 point lead. A late surge by the Drumcondra side resulted in 2 scrappy goals, however D.C.U. finished strongly to deny any chance of a comeback with Walsh claiming the final 2 scores of the game with long range points.
Enormous credit must go to the management team led by Seamus Kelly and they will now look forward with great confidence to a tricky quarter final tie against G.M.I.T.(away) on Thursday week. The sides met earlier in the season and drew after a high scoring encounter. After this performance D.C.U. will be now hopeful of edging out the Tribesmen to reach the last four.
D.C.U. M.Downey, J.Whelan, E.Byrne, V.O’Flynn, B.Aherne, A.Moran (captain), W.Eviston, E.Ryan, J.J. Lennon(0-6, 0-5f), P.Keaney(St.Pats Palmerstown), D. Martin-Carrol(0-1), O. O’Meilidigh(Na Fianna)(0-1), D.McNally(1-0)(Na Fianna, W.Walsh(2-2), M.Crowdle(0-1),sub E.Slattery(Naomh Mearnog) for P.Keaney (50mins)
St.Pats : scorers only C.Maher (2-4), W.Downes (1-0) I.Duggan (0-1)
