Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup quarter-final DCU 7-14 Queen’s University, Belfast 0-9
Queen’s suffer at DCU hands
FROM DAIRE WALSH AT ST CLARE’S
A RUTHLESS DCU brought Queen’s University’s Sigerson Cup campaign to an abrupt halt at St Clare’s yesterday afternoon.
Despite having the measure of TU Dublin City on home soil eight days earlier, Conor Deegan’s men had no answer to the pace and power of the fourttime champions in this quarter-final encounter.
Donegal’s Brendan McCole was one of a number of Ulster men to feature in the DCU line-up and he admitted to have a degree of sympathy for Queen’s in the aftermath of their 26-point defeat.
“I think Queen’s will be a bit disappointed in themselves today. They’re a good team, they did well in the league. They can play a lot better than that. We’ve played them the last three years and they’ve always given us a tight game,” the St Eunan’s club man remarked after the game.
Queen’s were seeking to bridge a 13-year gap to their last success at this grade, but they found themselves chasing the game from the opening moments.
Kevin Flynn, Declan Monaghan and Micheal Bannigan found the target for a fired-up DCU and while Darragh McGurn got Queen’s up and running off an advanced mark, the hosts subsequently pushed into overdrive.
Queen’s briefly halted their momentum when Donal McKeever split the posts on the run, but it only served as a temporary respite.
Although Daniel McGuinness also raised a white flag after Eamon Fyfe had been denied by Evan Comerford, the triumvirate of Donohoe, Bannigan and David Garland ensured DCU brought an unassailable 3-9 to 0-3 buffer into the interval.
Garland’s 1-1 salvo stretched them further in front on the resumption and even though Tiarnan Bogue picked off a nice score for Queen’s, a fifth DCU goal inevitably arrived.
Not wanting to be outdone by his Monaghan compatriot Garland, the outstanding Bannigan palmed beyond the reach of Queen’s netminder Eoghan Mulholland on 37 minutes.
McGurn and Odhran Eastwood did their utmost to life the deflated visitors – the latter finding the range either side of a Smith point for DCU.
Nevertheless, with three Sigerson crowns accumulated in the last decade alone, DCU are hell-bent on the beginning the new era on a positive note.
Sky Blues native Smith is pushing hard for a starting place in their side and did his chances no harm with a smooth finish just shy of the third-quarter mark.
Dublin senior panellist Paddy Small became the ninth DCU scorer on the stroke of 50 minutes, while Bannigan brought his final haul to 2-4 inside the closing stages. The hard-working McGurn added a brace of points late on as Queen’s persevered in the face of extreme adversity, but it was DCU who marched on in utterly convincing fashion.
MATCH STATS
DCU: E Comerford; C Morrison, B McCole, D Corcoran; K Flynn (1-1), S MacMahon, D Monaghan (0-1); J Morrissey, S Carthy; S Bugler (0-1), M Bannigan (2-4, 0-1f), B Stack (1-2); TE Donohoe (1-1), P Small (0-1), D Garland (1-2, 0-1f, 0-1 mark).
Subs: S Smith (1-1) for Donohoe, T Fox for Bugler (both 35), S Akram for Flynn (42), M Barry for Carthy, S Tierney for Garland (both 45).
Queen’s University: E Mulholland; O Lappin, A Lynch, P Fegan; D Guinness (0-1), C O’Neill, A McAvoy; D McKeever (0-1), C Higgins; R Campbell, C Gorman, T Bogue (0-1); E Fyfe, D McGurn (0-4, 1f, 1 mark), O Eastwood (0-2, 2f).
Subs: B Gallen for Campbell (18), B Haveron for O’Neill, C Cox for Gorman (both 42), A Fullerton for Eastwood (45), E Deane for Higgins (53).
Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).