Sporting Fingal 1 - 0 U.C.D.

• Niall Farrell
• Sat, Sep 05 2009


Sporting Fingal placed themselves firmly in pole position to challenge league leaders Shelbourne with a confident display at the Morton Stadium to win 1-0.

UCD looked the better side early on, with Ciaran Kilduff holding the ball up well in the Fingal half, but The Students failed to make this early domination of possession pay off.

The first half was not too pleasant on the eye for the opening half hour or so as both sides jostled in midfield for the ball. A hard tackle from UCD midfielder Ronan Finn on Gary O’Neill saw a minor scuffle ensue between both sets of players, and both Finn and O’Neill were left with yellow cards.

Just before half-time Sporting began to assert themselves more, with midfielder Robert Bayly spraying the ball around to launch attacks.

The breakthrough came for Sporting in the 35th minute with a goal from Alan Kirby. UCD goalkeeper Billy Brennan could only block a shot from Shane McFaul, and Kirby duly put the ball in the back of the UCD net.

Sporting began the second half in the same manner as they ended the first, mounting attacks on the UCD defence, but centre-backs Ciaran Nangle and Andrew Boyle of UCD capably dealt with the pressure.

Ten minutes into the second half UCD brought off their leading scorer Ciaran Kilduff, who was replaced by Timmy Purcell. Purcell invigorated the UCD attack as their defensive line moved further up the pitch to exert more pressure on Sporting Fingal.

Fingal were able to resist the increased pressure and Gary O’Neill spearheaded a number of counter attacks. UCD altered things again by bringing in Keith Ward to replace John Reilly in the 68th minute while Fingal brought Robbie Doyle and Eamon Zayed to replace Conan Byrne and the excellent Gary O’Neill in the 78th and 80th minutes respectively.

Sporting never looked likely to concede, with both the defence and goalkeeper Darren Quigley on top form to deny UCD, who did have one or two clear chances to equalise. Timmy Purcell missed a sitter late on, with the ball just going over the bar from short range. Fingal held on to get the win and secure second place in the First Division.

Sporting Fingal: Quigley, Gannon, Fitzgerald, McArdle, Maher, Paisley, Byrne (Byrne, 78), Bayly, O’Neill (Zayed, 80), Kirby, McFaul.

UCD: Brennan, Shortall, Nangle, Boyle, E McMillan, Bolger, D McMillan, Finn, Kilduff (Purcell, 55), McMahon, Reilly (Ward, 60).

extratime.ie Man of the Match: Robert Bayly. The Sporting midfielder had an excellent match, winning the ball in midfield, tackling well, getting forward to join the attack and distributing the ball expertly. This was a real box-to-box display from the former Leeds man.

Referee: R Rogers

Attendance: 623