UCD fell to their second loss in a week- and their fourth in five games- as they were beaten 2-1 by Sligo Rovers in The Showgrounds tonight. Sligo were the better team throughout the game as UCD's midfield struggled to cope with their dominant hosts.
Pete Mahon made four changes to the team that lost 4-1 against Cork City earlier in the week. Alan McNally, Ian Bermingham and Paul Crowley all picked up injuries in Turner's Cross and were replaced by Brian Shorthall, Derek Doyle and Ronan Finn respectively. Peter Hynes was preferred to Timmy Purcell upfront in the only other change to the side. Tony McDonnell, Shane Fitzgerald and Paul Byrne were ruled out once again due to injuries.
UCD got off to the worst possible start with Sligo taking the lead after six minutes. Good work from Fahrudin Kudozovic released Brian Cash on the right and his driven cross was met on the half-volley by Adam Hughes, who made no mistake in opening the scoring.
The remainder of the first half was an extremely dour affair, with neither side able to create any clear cut chances. Both sides had speculative long range efforts miss the target.
Sligo again started strongly in the second half. Hughes got on the end of Mark Boyd's defence-splitting pass. The Australian dragged his shot wide of the goal but as he was ruled offside it wouldn't have counted anyway.
However Sligo didn't have to wait much longer to double their advantage. Hughes was again involved and his hard work setup Kudozovic, but his close range shot was saved by Darren Quigley. The rebound fell to Rafael Cretaro and as he was tackled by Conor Kenna the defender handled the ball. Keith Foy stepped up and coolly placed the ball out of Quigley's reach.
Sligo began to sit back and this allowed UCD to launch a sustained peroid of pressure on the Sligo goal. However the visitors were restricted to shots from distance as the Sligo defence comfortably dealt with the Students' attacks. Conan Byrne and Derek Doyle had free kicks save by Richard Brush, while Ronan Finn shot narrowly over after good work from Paul Murphy.
On 80 minutes UCD's woes were compounded as Doyle went down in the Sligo penalty box. The winger was in terrible pain as he was stretchered off, his leg was broken in two places.
UCD added a consolation goal in stoppage time. The Sligo defence failed to clear a high ball into the box and Paul Murphy capatalized on the error to score his first goal for UCD.
