Sigerson Cup round two: Ulster University 2-11 ATU Donegal 1-13
ULSTER University will take on UCD in round three of the Sigerson Cup after they staged a major comeback against ATU Donegal in yesterday’s encounter at Ballinderry Shamrocks.
Due to the freezing weather, the tie was postponed three times last week – on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – but finally got underway an hour late in mid-Ulster yesterday lunchtime.
At one stage of the game, UU were eight points behind their opponents from the north-west, but they refused to throw in the towel and Down man Andrew Gilmore’s well-taken goal kept them in the hunt. When vice-captain Conor Cush stepped up to convert a second-half penalty, he turned a two-point deficit into a one-point lead for the Jordanstown students.
UU had suffered a narrow round one defeat to QUB earlier this month, and Cush said the hurt from that loss drove them on when their backs were against the wall yesterday.
“We’ve been questioned all week, even been by the manager, we’ve got the talent on the pitch but do we have the drive for it? Do we have the character? And I think today showed that we did, men diving on balls, blocks, everything,” Cush told Jerome Quinn on the final whistle.
“The thing that was driving us on was the Queen’s game, everybody was saying that was a game we definitely should have been winning and we knew that there, but I think in the second-half, the midfield was class, we won most of the kick-outs, when we pushed up, we won the kick-outs and kept it getting it over.”
UU could have scored another three goals in the final 10 minutes, hitting the bar twice, but Cush was philosophical about the missed opportunities.
“Thankfully, we didn’t need them in the end but we need to be more clinical, against UCD we’d need to be scoring them, but in the end of this one it didn’t matter,” he added.
The third round game against UCD will take place on Wednesday night at 7pm, with venue still to be confirmed.
Queen’s University Belfast will seek to get Friday’s heavy defeat to DCU Dóchas Éireann out of their system when they take on University College Cork at 7pm on Wednesday night in Abbottstown’s Centre of Excellence.
Rob Finnery grabbed a personal haul of 2-5 for DCU in that 3-14 to 0-5 victory, while Conor Corbett and Keelin McGann also impressed for the Dubliners.
Tomorrow night, MTU Cork are up against ATU Sligo, while SETU Carlow play University of Limerick.
