Willie O’Connor hails UCD side as unbeaten run continues

Willie O'Connor has enjoyed a solid start to life as UCD manager

Willie O'Connor has enjoyed a solid start to life as UCD manager Credit: John Crothers (ETPhotos)

Andrew Dempsey reports from the UCD Bowl 

UCD boss Willie O’Connor insists his young side need to maintain their performance levels to maintain their unbeaten streak. 

The Students have risen to second place in the table and are just two points behind league leaders Cork City. 

Three successive victories over Wexford, Treaty United and Longford Town - on Friday night - have kept them in touch with City and they are now unbeaten in nine games. 

“It has been a great run,” O’Connor said when speaking to extratime.com on Friday night.

“But the challenge for the lads is, can they keep that consistency going? 

“In the first quarter of games, we have seen that if we drop off, that’s when we don’t win games.”

Prior to Friday’s win at home to Longford Town, the Students had only claimed five points from five home league outings.

“We were doing better away from home,” O’Connor added. “In the first quarter of games, our home form wasn’t good enough and we’ve looked to rectify that.

“But I wouldn’t blame the pitch because our pitch was one of the better ones at the start of the season. We went to worse pitches and put on better performances. 



“It’s probably just the way the games worked out.”

And the Students have another chance to pick up more points at home on Monday evening when they host Cobh Ramblers at the Belfield Bowl. 

They already defeated the Rams this season - but required two late goals to win 2-1. 

“It’s going to be a really difficult game,” O’Connor said. “It was one of the toughest games we had during the first round of games already.

“The last Monday game we had (against Kerry), we weren’t at it.

“We know what we are in for and we know that we have to be at it to get a result.”



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