Curran drives DCU to victory
Fitzgibbon Cup
DCU 1-14
WIT 0-10
Daire Walsh
DCU Sportsgrounds
DCU kick-started their Fitzgibbon Cup in style last night, with a surprise victory over Waterford IT.
WIT (who have nine titles to their name) opened the scoring with a point from Tipperary’s Liam McGrath, but this was quickly cancelled out by a similar effort from Patrick Curran.
The sides continued to trade scores before DCU created some daylight with a goal from a tight-angle by the impressive Curran. The dead-ball accuracy of McGrath helped WIT to subsequently cut the gap, but following scores by Peter Hogan and Rian McBride, the hosts led at the interval 1-7 to 0-7.
It was expected WIT would take the game to DCU after the restart, however, and unanswered points by McGrath and midfielder Andrew Joyce reduced their deficit to a minimum.
But they failed capitalise on that encouraging start and a strong purple patch from DCU produced scores from Curran (two), Gavin Bailey, Killian Doyle and AJ Murphy.
This left WIT with an uphill task and even though substitute Callum Lyons was on target from the right-wing, stoppage-time points by Curran and Joe O’Connor guided DCU to a seven-point triumph.
Scorers for DCU: P Curran 1-6 (0-3f), J O’Connor, R McBride 0-2 each, G Bailey, P Hogan, K Doyle, AJ Murphy 0-1 each.
Scorers for WIT: L McGrath 0-7 (5f, 1 s/line), A Joyce, S McNulty, C Lyons 0-1 each.
DCU: R Gillen (Westmeath); S McCaw (Dublin), E O’Donnell (Dublin), C Delaney (Kilkenny); A Maddock (Wexford), P Foley (Wexford), P O’Dea (Dublin); G Bailey (Wexford), J O’Connor (Wexford); L Fahey (Tipperary), R McBride (Dublin), J Byrne (Kilkenny); P Hogan (Waterford), P Curran (Waterford), E Conroy (Dublin).
Subs: K Doyle (Westmeath) for Byrne (45), AJ Murphy (Dublin) for Hogan (47), T French (Wexford) for Bailey (56).
WIT: M Fanning (Wexford); W Hahessy (Waterford), J Henderson (Kilkenny), T Fox (Tipperary); S O’Donahue (Wexford), J O’Dwyer (Tipperary), JP Tracey (Kilkenny); S Murphy (Kilkenny), S McNulty (Waterford); A Joyce (Cork), J O’Connor (Wexford), P Walsh (Waterford); S Ryan (Waterford), C O’Brien (Cork), L McGrath (Tipperary).
Subs: C Lyons (Waterford) for O’Connor (41), G Lane (Cork) for Joyce (45), C Neven (Galway) for O’Brien (51).
Referee: P Murphy (Carlow).