Collingwood Cup quarter-final
DCU 0-1 Trinity College
Dublin City University’s senior football team suffered a quarter-final exit in the Collingwood Cup for the second successive year, as they went down 1-0 to a ten-man Dublin University AFC, the representative of Trinity College.
The competition, which was hosted in Cork this year, has not been kind to DCU of late. The Northsiders exited at this stage last year too, cruelly losing to NUI Galway in extra time.
It was a local derby this time though, even if it was played 200 miles away from either team’s home ground. A typically cagey first half produced a lot of tension but nothing on the scoreboard as Trinity had their stall set out from the off.
The second half was marginally, if at all, more entertaining than the first but the balance appeared to swing in DCU’s favour shortly after the restart when Trinity were reduced to ten men. John Delahunt was sent off after misjudging a 50-50 ball between himself and the DCU goalkeeper.
Declan Roche’s side almost made the man advantage pay as Mark Walsh found himself one-on-one after a weighted ball from Rory Feely of St. Patrick’s Athletic but his shot went inches wide.
The Glasnevin side dominated the rest of the game but couldn’t make their good football pay as they conceded in the 89th minute. Trinity’s defensive strategy allowed space for Rónán Hanaphy on the break and he found the net to send Trinity’s cross-city rivals home empty-handed.
For the Southsiders, the competition didn’t last much longer as they were beaten 2-1 after extra time by the University of Limerick in the semi-final. They, in turn, met University College Dublin in the final who had previously defeated Queen’s University Belfast on penalties in the quarter-final and followed that up with a 1-0 victory against Maynooth University in the semi-final.
The Mardyke in UCC was the venue for the final as UCD came from behind to beat UL 2-1 in the dying moments. It was the Shannonsiders who took an early lead through Athlone Town striker Garbhan Coughlan and they carried that lead into half-time.
Ten minutes after the restart, however, George Kelly equalised for the Dubliners after a period of sustained pressure. Despite enjoying a dominant second half, UCD didn’t take their well deserved lead until injury time.
Despite the treacherous conditions, substitute Mark Boland got on the end of a perfectly timed pass from Gary O’Neill to bring the Collingwood Cup back to Belfield for a record 43rd time.
Aidan Geraghty
Image credit: DCU Soccer
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