UCC 1 NUI Galway 0 (after extra-time):HAVING ENDED UCD's hopes of completing a three-in-a-row at the semi-final stage, John Caulfield's UCC rounded off Galway's hat-trick of Collingwood Cup decider defeats in Trinity's College Park yesterday where a Luke Burgess strike in extra-time was enough to earn the Cork college their victory in the Dublin Bus-sponsored event.
“For me Luke has been our outstanding player this week,” said former Cork City striker Caulfield.
“He’s an unsung hero who just goes about his business with a cool head in there in central midfield and with a tired body out there today he’s stepped up to get the winner. I’m delighted for him.”
The win was, on the balance of play, just about deserved but Galway’s despair at missing out again was all too obvious at the end. In a tight game of few chances, they had come close to a breakthrough a couple of times themselves, most memorably when Alex Lee saw his attempt to turn Terry O’Doherty’s angled pass home cleared off the line by Andrew Neville shortly after the break. Two minutes after the goal, Brian Conlon forced a decent save form Kieran McHenry after Cian McBrien’s free had been deflected into his path.
Billy Clery’s side looked impressive at the back, though, with centre halves Martin Conneely and Cian Fadden containing a lively Cork attack. The former Galway United man had to change things about in order to curb the influence of Rob Waters down the right with Evan Kelly performing strongly after switching to left-back. Waters switched himself to play up front late on, but he found the big central defenders tough to unsettle.
UCC striker Josh O’Shea was a little unlucky to see his deflected shot spin off the line and away moments after Neville had cleared at the other end and Kevin Bambury came close too with a shot from a tight angle that flew to beyond the far post where Eoin Kilcommins could only find the side-netting.
In the end, Burgess got the decisive goal, his second winner of the week. Shane Hegarty picked up possession from a cross and, having seen his attempted shot come back to him off the legs of a defender, squared for the arriving midfielder to slot calmly into the bottom right corner.
UCC: McHenry; O’Callaghan, McSweeney, Neville; Waters, O’Donovan, Burgess, Holmes; E Hegarty, J O’Shea. Subs: Bambury for E Hegarty (52 mins), S Hegarty for O’Donovan and K O’Shea for O’Callaghan (both 65 mins), Kilcommins for Holmes (75).
NUI GALWAY: Keane; Kelly, Fadden, Conneely, Browne; O’Doherty, McBrien, Keane, Dunne; Gaffney, Creane. Subs: Scally for Browne, Cheevers for Keane and Lee for Creane (all ht), Conlon for Dunne (100).
Referee: R Glynn (Dublin).
