League Preview: UCD -v- Cork City

Colm Whelan & Liam Kerrigan celebrate UCD's second goal during their 5-2 win over Cabinteely at the UCD Bowl on Friday, 10 September 2021.

Colm Whelan & Liam Kerrigan celebrate UCD's second goal during their 5-2 win over Cabinteely at the UCD Bowl on Friday, 10 September 2021. Credit: Paul Dolan (ETPhotos)

UCD

UCD’s immediate ambitions to secure a First Division promotion play-off spot and ultimately make it back to the Premier Division suffered a setback in recent weeks following some sub-standard performances in two away fixtures.

After conceding a 91st minute goal to Waterford which saw them exit the Extra.ie FAI Cup on a 3-2 score line in Belfield, they then proceeded to lose two league games back-to-back, something they had only done once before during the season back in mid-June.

They were comprehensively beaten 4-1 away to Galway Utd, and followed that up with a surprising 2-1 reverse away to bottom of the table Wexford in their last outing.

They went behind in the 33rd minute at Ferrycarrig Park but equalised through Liam Kerrigan just at the start of the second half only to concede a second goal courtesy of Kyle Robinson in the 62nd minute.

Their away form has been their Achilles heel this season having lost six and drawn two matches on the road.

Two of their last three matches are at home, starting with Cork City this Friday night, and with the last match away to already promoted Shelbourne, they will probably think that a return of four or five points from the three fixtures will be sufficient to earn them that play-off spot.

They currently have 39 points, Galway Utd look secure above them in second place on 45 points, so in reality they are competing with Treaty Utd, their next visitors to Belfield on Oct 22nd , and Bray Wanderers for the play-off spots from the First Division.

The team will have been further boosted by the involvement of two of their players in the recent European Championship U-21 qualifier matches.

Liam Kerrigan started on the right wing for the Republic of Ireland in the 2-0 home win against Luxembourg at Tallaght Stadium while Colm Whelan was a 61st minute substitute in the 2-1 away loss to Montenegro in Podgorica last Tuesday night.



CORK CITY

Cork City’s slim hopes of making a promotion play-off spot were more or less extinguished with the 2-0 home defeat to Shelbourne on Sept 10th, but even with that setback they have not thrown in the towel and picked up five points from a possible nine in their last three matches, two of which were away from home.

They recorded two away draws to Treaty Utd and Bray Wanderers and followed up those impressive performances with a 4-0 drubbing of Wexford in Turners Cross last weekend.

They were well on the way to victory anyway when 2-0 up after 38 minutes but their task was made a lot easier by the sending off of Wexford defender Lorcan Fitzgerald in the 40th minute.

Manager Colin Healy will see the spread of goals across his squad as one of the positive outcomes from the season, in the season so far 11 different players have been on the scoresheet.

The absence of a dependency on any one goal scorer was very evident in the Wexford match where Cian Murphy, Barry Coffey, Cian Bargary and Dylan McGlade all found the net.



Speaking to the media during the week, Healy said, ‘’UCD area a good side, they move the ball well, it’s a big pitch, they have got good energy levels, it will be a tough game for use but we will put a team together with the aim of taking all three points.’’

When asked to comment on UCD having lost their last three matches, he said, ‘’ I would not read too much into that, every time we have played them it’s been very difficult. They have some very good players, like Whelan and Kerrigan, we will have to be at our very best to take something out of the game.’’

Referee: Alan Patchell

MATCH STATS

The two matches between the sides this season both ended in draws. It was 0-0 at the Belfield Bowl in May while it ended 1-1 at Turners Cross in July with Cian Murphy scoring for City and Jack Keaney equalising for the Students.

Four fixtures between the two side back in 2019 produced three wins for the Leesiders with UCD coming out 2-1 winners in one game, their goal scorers on that occasion being Yousef Mahdy now of Shelbourne, and Gary O’Neill now of Shamrock Rovers. Cork’s goal came from Sean McLoughlin who is now plying his trade with Hull City.

BETTING

UCD 7/10; Draw 14/5; Cork City 3/1

PREDICTION

UCD 2-1 Cork City

UCD

Injured: None

Doubtful: None

Suspended: Paul Doyle

 

Cork City

Injured: Uniss Kargbo, George Heaven, Rob Slevin.

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

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