Emmet Malone at United Park
Drogheda Utd 3 UCD 2
Declan O'Brien's remarkable recent run of form continued last night at United Park where his two goals for Paul Doolin's side took his tally of late to 11 in nine games and helped to book Drogheda a place in this year's FAI cup semi-finals.
The home side trailed their First Division opponents for just short of an hour and a quarter in what turned out to be an outstanding cup encounter but after O'Brien had scored late on, and the match went into extra-time, it was the home side who always looked the more likely to progress to the competition's last four.
Watching from the stand after being expelled from the dug-out during one of many passionate clashes between rival players and officials, Pete Mahon must have felt the game had slipped away from his side with O'Brien's second goal on 94 minutes, but a stunning 25-metre free from Robert McAuley six minutes from time gave the students hope again until John Lester finally killed the game off with a low driven free of his own at the other end just as the crowd were resigning themselves to the potential heartbreak of a penalty shootout.
It was a cruel end to the night for the Dubliners who had started strongly and taken the lead after just 90 seconds thanks to Robbie Martin. There may be no good time to concede a goal but there are certainly worse times than less than two minutes in.
Doolin's side had plenty of time to pick themselves up and the large local support clearly expected their players to get back into things fairly quickly.
For the rest of the half, though, the hosts struggled to cope with both the blustery conditions and the fierce determination of their visitors who closed down every player in possession and chased every loose ball. Not that they always had to work all that hard. United, as they had been in Belfield, were terribly careless with the ball at times and surrendered so much possession in midfield that there was little left for Andy Myler and Declan O'Brien to scrap over up front.
At the other end it was a different story with Martin and Willie Doyle carving out a succession of chances without capitalising on their opportunities. Doyle should have doubled the advantage after 18 minutes but was prevented from shooting by Jermaine Sandvliet, while Martin narrowly failed to make contact in front of an open goal after his strike partner had done well to cut the ball low in from the left.
Had the students taken any one of those first-half chances, or if Gary Rogers hadn't saved well from Pat McWalter eight minutes into the second period after the UCD midfielder had turned Sandvliet inside out, it would have been difficult to see United hauling themselves back into things from two goals down.
Repeatedly, though, they were let off the hook and as the home side finally began to show not just urgency but also a little bit more cohesion through the opening stages of the second period, an equaliser began to seem inevitable.
To the huge relief of the locals it finally came 16 minutes from time when Mark Rooney found Declan O'Brien in the centre and the 25-year-old striker did well to take a single touch, step over the ball and then nudge it past Darren Quigley into the bottom right corner.
With UCD's defending suddenly looking very shaky, the locals could have gone on to wrap things up within the next few minutes but a couple of misses late on meant extra-time and a nail-biting end to a memorable game.
DROGHEDA UNITED:Rogers; Flanagan, O'Connor, Gray, Sandvliet; Whelan (McClare, 55 mins), Molloy, Lester, Reilly (Cronin, 105); O'Brien, Myler (Rooney, 65).
UCD:Quigley; Sullivan (Gannon, 100), Kenna, McNally (Foley, 90), McAuley; McWalter, Dicker, Finn, O'Donnell; Doyle (Kierans, 79), Martin.
Referee:A Kelly (Cork).