Sport

NUIG pull away in the end

Fitzgibbon Cup: NUI Galway 1-18, UCC 1-12 NUI Galway produced a storming finish to book their place in the Fitzgibbon Cup semi…

Wed Feb 28 2007 - 00:00

Fitzgibbon Cup: NUI Galway 1-18, UCC 1-12 NUI Galway produced a storming finish to book their place in the Fitzgibbon Cup semi-finals in the wind and rain at Dangan yesterday.

Favourites UCC were in trouble at half-time when they trailed by 1-5 to 0-7 having played with the diagonal wind, but they still made the home side fight all the way.

The hero of the day for the Galway college was Clare's David Barrett who gave Kilkenny star John Tennyson a torrid time on his way to notching 1-4 from play - while Tipperary's Dara Egan was faultless in his shooting.

The sides were level three times during a competitive opening half before Barrett rattled the back of the net after Finian Coone had collected a long free from his Galway colleague John Lee.

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The introduction of Stephen Moylan added real pace to the UCC attack in the second half and he set up Eoghan Murphy for a goal five minutes after the restart to tie the game at 1-8 each.

Points from Egan and Barret (two) in response to efforts from John Halbert and Niall Moran meant that there was just a goal between the sides with seven minutes left at 1-14 to 1-11.

UCC launched an onslaught in the closing minutes, but NUIG held firm as goalkeeper David Woods saved superbly from Moylan, Murphy hit the woodwork and then full back Martin Ryan deflected a Jamie Nagle shot over the bar.

That meant there was still just a goal between the sides going into the final moments, but Egan closed out the game with a brace of points for NUIG before Coone hit his third of the match to book a place in the semi-finals in Carlow the weekend after next.

NUIG: D Woods; R Whyte, M Ryan, L Geraghty; J Dunphy, J Lee, E Barrett; C Ryan (0-1), S Molumphy; D Egan (0-8, five frees), D Barrett (1-4), P O'Brien (0-1); D Kenny (0-1), F Coone (0-3), S Glynn.

UCC: E Martin; S O'Neill, P Murray, C Hickey; S Cronin, J Tennyson, K Hartnett; M Cahill, R Foley (0-1); P Cronin (0-4, one free), N Moran (0-1), J Nagle (0-2); J Halbert (0-2), E Murphy (1-0), G O'Connor (0-2). Subs: S Moylan for Cahill (half-time), D Cody for Tennyson (54 mins).

Referee: G Hoey (Clare).