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Murray equalises to make amends

UCD - 1 Cork City - 1: Dan Murray redeemed himself with a terrific equaliser, though this draw, their sixth in eight games, …

Sat Sept 23 2006 - 01:00

UCD - 1 Cork City - 1: Dan Murray redeemed himself with a terrific equaliser, though this draw, their sixth in eight games, was not what Cork City would have wanted in defence of their Premier title as they remain eight points behind league leaders Shelbourne with eight games remaining.

Cork City captain Murray was all too easily shaken off the ball by UCD's bustling striker Conor Sammon on 71 minutes as he ran through on to Conor Kenna's clearance to drill his shot under goalkeeper Michael Devine for College's first goal in five games at Belfield last night.

But Murray made amends minutes later when latching on to a loose ball to crash a stunning 25-yard shot to the net to finally beat the otherwise superb Darren Quigley.

UCD's Ireland under-21 goalkeeper had kept his side in the match with a terrific double save a minute before the interval.

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First parrying away a stinging drive from Billy Woods, Quigley was quickly to his feet to make a brilliant one-handed save from John O'Flynn's follow-up to prevent what appeared a certain goal.

Unfortunately, that was about as good as it got in the first half, despite both sides wasting very scoreable openings earlier on.

UCD's Patrick Kavanagh scuffed his shot wide when he ought have got it on target after team-mate Paul Byrne pounced on Murray's mistake to pick him out in what appeared a good scoring position.

An even worse miss came at the other end on 21 minutes.

Colin O'Brien put Roy O'Donovan through the inside-right channel, but the shot was wastefully arrowed into the side netting.

Cork's O'Flynn looked set to score again within a minute of the restart as he ran through on to Neale Fenn's clever pass, but Kenna got back in the nick of time to make a tremendous saving tackle.

Three minutes later Quigley excelled again when stretching to tip over Joe Gamble's free kick.

With Cork well on top now, the excellent Fenn then threaded the ball through to O'Flynn on 65 minutes, but once more Quigley was off his line to smother the ball out for a corner.

UCD: Quigley; Mahon, McNally, Kenna, Ryan; Kavanagh (McWalter 72 mins), Dicker, McDonnell, Doyle; Sammon, P Byrne (C Byrne, 87 mins).

CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; O'Donovan (Behan, 82 mins), O'Brien (Softic, 73 mins), Gamble, Woods (C Lordan, 73 mins); Fenn, O'Flynn.

Referee: Pat Whelan (Dublin).