UCD AFC – 2
FINN HARPS -2
04 April 2015.
Andrew Cowan at the UCD Bowl.
It was another disappointing night at the UCD Bowl for Collie O’Neill’s men as the students again conceded late to miss out on a much needed victory. UCD were looking to end a four game losing streak at home to Donegal’s Finn Harps and came with seven minutes of doing so.
The students opened up the scoring after sixteen minutes when midfielder Mick Leahy’s header found its way over Ciaran Gallagher’s goal line, there was a brief moment of confusion over whether the ball had even crossed the line before linesman Matthew Farrell raised his flag to signal the opening score of the night.
Finn Harps countered just five minutes later when French striker Wilfred Tagbo capitalized on UCD’s inability to clear their lines, leveling the scores from only five yards out. A couple of minutes before half time saw a controversial decision go against the home side, referee Ben Connolly deemed Jamie Doyle to be off side when his volley found the back of the net.
The visitors nearly went 2-1 up on the counter attack following Doyle’s offside goal. Finn Harps had a corner that beat Niall Corbet on his far post but just sailed past the goal line. The second half opened up with all the chances for the visitors. First half goal scorer Tagbo found himself one on one with Niall Corbet with the UCD goal stopper marginally coming out on top for the home side.
With 61 minutes on the clock, UCD Captain Robbie Benson picked out Jamie Doyle on the edge of the Harps area, his strike turned and found its way past Ciaran Gallagher in the Finn Harps goal making it 2-1 to the home side. Unfortunately for Doyle and UCD AFC, his wonder strike was to be cancelled out with less than ten minutes to go when Kevin McHugh came off the Finn Harps bench to make it 2-2.
The match finished 2-2 in the end and it brings the number to five games in a row without a win for Collie O’Neill’s men. The current form now finds them seventh in the Airtricty first division with a total of four points out of a possible fifteen. The draw means that Finn Harps are now sitting at the top of the table with eleven points. Next week UCD AFC make the short journey to Stradbrook to take on Cabinteely FC. Nothing less than a win will do for O’Neill’s men. Both teams met on the 7th of March with Cabinteely coming out as 1 nil victors in the EA Sports Cup tie.
