UCD's front pairing of Willie Doyle and Robbie Martin were on target again as UCD bounced back from defeat in Ballybofey last week to go back to the top of the First Division table for 24 hours at least.
The last home game UCD played saw the College score four goals, beginning with a Willie Doyle strike after less than a minute. Here, Doyle opened the scoring after a mere 30 seconds; however, like the Athlone game, I was still selling programmes at the time, and so again missed what was supposed to have been a decent goal! :mad: It continues an impressive start to Doyle's UCD career, as the striker now has four goals in four games since signing from Bohs in the pre-season.
The rest of the first half was fairly evenly matched, with UCD creating the better chances - a clearance from Galway keeper Alan Gough rebounded off his own defender and went narrowly wide - but Galway also had their fair share of play, with Alan McNally covering back well when Barry Moran had Rob McAuley beaten for pace at the back.
In the second half, Galway could have equalised through former Student Barry Moran, who broke free into the area and rounded Neil Gallagher only for Pat Sullivan to get back and get in a superb goal-saving tackle.
The game turned with the substitution of Willie Doyle, who went off injured after another heavy Galway challenge. Brian Newguy Gannon came on at right-wing, pushing Pat McWalter up front, and the extra width saw College really take the game to their opponents. And College went 2-0 up on 67 minutes when Pat Sullivan floated in a cross to the far post where Robbie Martin, unmarked, volleyed home left-footed to beat Gough at his near post.
The game had been fairly scrappy until then, but College dominated the last quarter of the match. Pat McWalter, who earlier saw Gough save well in a one-on-one situation, became the first player other than Robbie Martin or Willie Doyle to score for UCD this season when beating Alan Gough to a through ball before rounding the keeper and slotting home from a narrow angle.
Things went from bad to worse for Galway two minutes later when Mark Herrick was sent off for a second yellow after a foul on the edge of the UCD area, and six minutes later came the goal of the game. Captain Tony McDonnell came out strongest in a tackle near the corner of the area, before the ball was worked across through Robbie Martin and Pat McWalter before it came to Brian Newguy in space, who cemented his already excellent reputation with the fans by slotting home past the helpless Gough. Gannon, incidentally, had earlier seen a volley go over the bar with such power that it smashed one of the seats in the Cascarino Stand!
Galway nearly claimed a consolation when Barry Moran hit the side netting a couple of minutes later - this was actually announced as a goal, but the referee overruled the PA announcer by awarding a goal kick ("Are you Aertel in disguise?!" :D ). And in injury-time, a nightmare last quarter for Galway was rounded off with a straight red for their captain Fran Carter after a nasty challenge which somehow left two UCD players injured.
UCD - Gallagher; Sullivan, Davey, McAuley, McNally (Kenna); McDonnell, McWalter, Finn, O'Donnell; Doyle (Gannon), Martin (Burke)
Galway - Gough; Curran (Keady), Carter, C Frawley, R Frawley; Fortune, Goldbey, Herrick, Quirke (Harty); Moran, Russell
