Dublin City University 2-10 University College Dublin 0-6
CHAMPIONS DUBLIN CITY University booked their place in the semi-finals of the Irish Daily Mail Sigerson Cup with a comfortable ten-point victory over University College Dublin this afternoon.
The holders had little difficulty in disposing with the challenge of UCD, particularly after the visitors were reduced to 13 men in the second half.
UCD had Kevin McLoughlin sent off for a second bookable offence in the 40th minute, after the Mayo star tangled with Johnny Cooper off the ball.
Four minutes later, UCD’s top scorer Donie Kingston received a straight red card from Meath whistler David Gough for an incident involving DCU’s diminutive forward Donie Smith.
UCD trailed by just three points when Kingston was dismissed and the gap was down to two when Niall Murray drilled over a point soon after.
But in the final fifteen minutes, DCU outscored UCD by 1-6 to 0-1 to set up a semi-final showdown with DIT, a fixture that will be a repeat of last year’s quarter-final between the sides.
DCU led by 1-2 to 0-3 at the end of a low scoring but incident-packed first half at St Clare’s yesterday.
The sides were level at 0-2 apiece before Donegal’s 2012 All-Ireland winning skipper Michael Murphy scored a 22nd minute penalty.
UCD queried the award, claiming that Murphy was outside the large parallelogram when he was hauled down by Rory O’Carroll.
It was the first of a number of questionable decisions as DCU’s Paul Flynn could have been awarded a penalty before half-time.
UCD’s Paul Cahillane looked to have genuine claims early in the second half but again, penalty appeals fell on deaf ears.
Murphy top-scored for DCU with a haul of 1-4 and his solitary point from play was an outrageous effort struck over the bar off the outside of his right boot.
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Scorers for DCU: M Murphy 1-4 (1-0 pen, 0-3f), P Flynn 1-1, B Donnelly, D Smith, P Ryan, C McGuinness & C McGraynor 0-1 each.
Scorers for UCD: D Kingston 0-3 (1f), N Murray, N Kilroy & S Cadden 0-1 each.
DCU: James Farrelly (Cavan); William Lowry (Dublin), Jonathan Cooper (Dublin), Conor Boyle (Monaghan); Conor Daly (Roscommon), Jack Brady (Cavan), Michael Quinn (Longford); Fiontain O’Curraoin (Galway), Peter O’Hanlon (Monaghan); Paul Flynn (Dublin), Chris McGuinness (Monaghan), Antoin McFadden (Donegal); Donal Smith (Roscommon), Michael Murphy (Donegal), Philly Ryan (Dublin).
SUBS: Michael McCarthy (Dublin) for Ryan (h.t.), Gary Sweeney (Dublin) for McFadden (h.t.), Brian Donnelly (Louth) for O’Hanlon (40), Conor McGraynor (Wicklow) for Flynn (54), Eamonn Doherty (Donegal) for Quinn (59).
UCD: Eoghan Keogh (Laois); Josh Hayes (Cavan), Rory O’Carroll (Dublin), Michael Furlong (Wexford); Luke Keaney (Donegal), Ciaran Lenihan (Meath), David Drake (Mayo); John Heslin (Westmeath), Craig Dias (Dublin); Niall Murray (Cavan), David Larkin (Meath), Niall Kilroy (Roscommon); Kevin McLoughlin (Mayo), Paul Cahillane (Laois), Donal Kingston (Laois).
SUBS: Ryan Basquel (Dublin) for Larkin (h.t.), Simon Cadden (Cavan) for Cahillane (48), Cormac Boyle (Westmeath) for Kilroy (54).
Referee: David Gough (Meath).
