UCD won their first match in five to move back to the top of the First Division for 24 hours at least with this ultimately comfortable win over Athlone. The game marked UCD's first home league game in over a month and saw us record our biggest win since beating Limerick 3-0 back in July.
With Neil Gallagher and Paul Whelan injured, Seán Cashin was on the bench, but other than that, it was the same team which started against Drogheda in the Cup replay, with Batman Hughes having to settle for a place on the bench. Athlone, with the worst away record in the league, had former Student Paddy Mulvihill up front and Niall Donnelly on the bench.
UCD took the lead after just 12 minutes - I actually missed the goal, but apparently the Athlone keeper came for a cross, missed and left Gary Dicker the simple task of finishing to an empty net for his first senior goal.
It was by no means one-way-traffic, though - earlier, Athlone had hit the bar when their forward beat Darren Quigley to a cross, and his header looped onto the top of the bar. Athlone caused trouble at regular intervals during the first period, with No 10 Adrian Murphy in particular impressive. On more than one occasion, he burst onto a through ball, and the UCD defence and Quigley had to be alert to stop him. At the other end, UCD saw plenty of the ball, but failed to creat any clear-cut chances.
Seven minutes into the second half, however, UCD struck for the important second goal. A Seán Finn corner was met by the head of Alan McNally, and his header struck a defender and went in off the post, even though the Athlone keeper got a hand to the ball.
From then on in, UCD were on top, though again without creating many clear-cut chances. Mick O'Donnell tried a kick over his shoulder which went wide, Willie Doyle's shot from the edge of the area was weak and went straight to the keeper while Pat McWalter impressed out on the wing. Philly Hughes put himself around to good effect when he came on, and had two or three chances, but failed to make anything of them.
The third goal was the best of the lot - not exactly a challenge, but it was a good goal. Seán Finn picked up a nod-down in the penalty area, turned his marker and slotted past the keeper into the far corner. In the last minute, Athlone could have snatched a consolation goal, but they were denied by the acrobatics of Darren Quigley, who parried away a header at full stretch to seal his first clean sheet in the league just four days after his first non-clean sheet in the Cup.
UCD - Quigley; Sullivan, McAuley, Kenna, McNally (Foley 88); Dicker (O'Brien 80), McWalter, Finn, O'Donnell; Doyle (Hughes 78), Martin
Att - 264
UCD should have been 1-0 down, I don't know what Quigley was playing at that time. Hughes (I think) passed up a great opportunity in injury time as well, but looked quite lively. A solid performance but the opposition were quite poor. Sadly Harps grabbed an injury time winner today so UCD are back in 2nd.
"but they were denied by the acrobatics of Darren Quigley, who parried away a header at full stretch to seal his first clean sheet in the league "
Yea, he's mum should be happy with that!
" I'll go right up to here,
it can't possibly hurt.
All they will find is my
beer and my shirt."
Good to see that we kept playing after taking the lead for once. Howdid the midfield do? With Tony Mac out, that will probably be the most important part of the pitch we need to impress in.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
Dicker replaced him again. He had a good game. He got forward a lot, which left Finn a bit deeper than usual, but did a decent job.Originally Posted by Schumi
The midfield should be good enough for most teams, though it'll be interesting to see how it does against Harps.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Yeah, Gary Dicker's come of age since the first game against Drogheda (in his ninth game!); played very well and is off the mark too!
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