Warning - I got home at about 6:00 after this match, so any errors can, particularly in regards who got subbed off, can be blamed on that!! :p
UCD kept their side of the title-winning bargain with an easy win over Kilkenny City on Saturday night, but it wasn’t to be as Harps also won, leaving UCD to finish as runners-up, but far more importantly, with promotion sealed a long time ago. However, you’d have to imagine that had the original promotion system of one automatic place been in force, either Harps or UCD would have good reason to be aggrieved at being potentially denied promotion despite both teams smashing the previous points record for the division.
Kick-off game was delayed for some ten minutes due to crowd congestion – probably the first time this has ever happened at Belfield! However, the congestion was in Donegal, with the delay in Belfield to ensure that both games kicked off at the same time. The decision, while obviously correct, probably wouldn’t have gone down well with the players, who were left out in terrible weather conditions for ten minutes more than they had wanted to be!
The game had hardly kicked off when news filtered through of a goal in Donegal, followed by various rumours of a red card for Harps, which apparently turned out to be just a bad tackle which merited a red card but for which only a yellow was awarded. However, all UCD could do was win their own game, and on the half-hour, that is what they were doing. Pat Sullivan went on another surging run which took him into the Kilkenny area and around the keeper before he unselfishly squared for Mick O’Donnell to tap home into an empty net.
One became two around the hour mark when Robbie Mac headed home from an acute angle, though the goal was announced over the PA as being Philly Hughes’. By this stage, the match was little more than target practice against a Kilkenny side who had seen half their squad change from the last meeting in Belfield. Philly Hughes and Seán Finn had good chances to extend the lead, while Robbie Mac clipped the bar with a free-kick from nearly 30 yards out. However, the third goal – which at least confirmed UCD’s standing as the league’s top scorers – did arrive, though in slightly controversial fashion. A cut-back from the line was apparently out of play, but the linesman (or lineswoman, technically) allowed play to go on, and Robbie Martin was pushed over for a penalty. With Seán Finn having taken the most recent UCD penalties, Robbie Martin having been fouled and Willie Doyle looking for his first goal in four months, there was a bit of an argument over who was to take the kick. Finn won, and sent the keeper the wrong way to round off a most satisfactory season for the senior team.
UCD – Quigley; Mahon (Finn), McAuley, Kenna, McNally; McDonnell, Sullivan, Murphy (Dicker), O’Donnell; Doyle, Hughes (Martin). Subs not used – Gallagher, Foley.
Att - 307
