WIT 0 UCC 1
Following victories against Athlone IT and Cork IT, the Waterford Institute of Technology were striving to complete a hat-trick of wins when they played hosts to UCC last week at the RSC but they had to endure a close defeat against a visiting outfit who never game them an inch of space during the course of the 90 minutes.
It was quite simply one of those days.
No matter what they tried failed to materialise and they could have no complaints about the outcome of a game that failed to ignite.
Despite dropping the three points on offer, the Waterford outfit remain odds on to emerge from their group and move on in this tough competition.
It was clear to see from the outset that the UCC team were a different proposition to the previous opponents and WIT found the going tough from the opening whistle and goalkeeper Brandon O’Callaghan was called into action after 14 minutes when he had to dive low to turn away a strike from Dylan McNamara who cut in from the right.
WIT’s first effort did not arrive until the 23rd minute when Ian Goulding tried his luck from distance but his effort sailed harmlessly over the crossbar.
The hosts almost broke the deadlock totally against the run of play in the 32nd minute. Sean Roche ran with the ball before releasing it to Manugr Gensheimer who let fly from 12 yards but the UCC goalkeeper Shane O’Callaghan produced an excellent save from the WIT midfielder.
WIT showed a much more positive approach when the second half got underway but despite showing more attacking ideas their moves were broken up by the UCC defence in the final third of the pitch.
On the hour mark however it was the visitors who almost went in front when Mark Murphy was sent clear by Gavin Gallagher but needless to say he was once again denied by the excellent Brandon O’Callaghan.
It was very much as case of “if at first you don’t succeed then try and try again” after 71 minutes because Mark Murphy eventually managed to beat the WIT custodian.
Hugie O’Donovan, Dylan McNamara and Steve Mahon all combined to get the ball through to Murphy and this time he did beat Brandon O’Callaghan with a low strike from 12 yards.
A bad day at the office then for WIT but there is much more in this team and they will be confident of returning to their normal form when the league resumes following the mid-term break.
WIT: Brandon O’Callaghan, Keelan Hickey (Cormac O’Driscoll`78) Manugr Gensheimer (Ian Sinnott `57) John Frost, A.J. Lehane, Killian Cantwell, Conor Coad (Kevin O’Connor `49) Brian Nolan, Sean Roche (Caolan O’Reilly `57) Ian Goulding (Ben Duffy `87) Mustapha Monsyredeen.
UCC: Shane O’Callaghan, Darragh Lucey, Phil Ryan (Tommy O’Brien `74) Steve Mahon, Hughie O’Donovan, Kyle O’Shea, Dylan McNamara (Keith O’Connor `63) Mark Murphy, Gavin Gallagher, Conor Barry, Marcus Bevan.
Referee: Tony Walsh. Assistants. Johnny Matthews, Keith Fitzgerald.
