League Report: UCD 3 - 0 Waterford United

Jamie Doyle helped UCD to all three points in The Bowl against Waterford United as The Students sprung to life with three second half goals.

UCD started the stronger and were dominant in the opening ten minutes. Their first chance came just five minutes into the contest as a Chris Mulhall cross was cleared only as far as Gary O’Neil, whose shot was deflected marginally wide.

Minutes later Ryan Swan drew Matthew Connor out from his goal before laying the ball back for Mulhall who failed to beat the three Waterford defenders on the line.

Waterford began to come back into the game stringing a couple of short passes together before Shane Nolan took the ball from forty metres and attempted to catch Niall Corbet off his line.

Nolan failed to pull off a repeat of his effort against Shelbourne and the ball dropped short into the keeper’s grateful hands.

Two minutes later UCD won a corner and Jamie Doyle got his head to a promising Mulhall ball. Doyle failed to make enough contact to direct it goalwards allowing the defence time to clear their lines.

Shortly after Jack Watson found himself in space on the right wing and flashed the ball across goal, but no UCD players followed in to take advantage.

The Students saw most of the ball over the course of the 90 minutes, Ryan Swan dribbled down the left before pulling it back to Jamie Doyle whose shot was cleared by Shane Dineen.

With just 26th minutes played linesman Darragh Keegan appeared to have trouble with his hamstring prompting fourth official Michael O’Connor to take over the flag for the remainder of the game.

Chances were rare as half time approached with Waterford offering very little going forward. Jack Waston stuck a volley five yards wide before Swan had a penalty appeal correctly turned down by Simon Rogers.

Waterford showed more intent at the beginning of the second half, Watson received the game’s first yellow for taking Shane Nolan down on the edge of the box, Doherty stepped up and curled it towards the middle of the goal forcing Corbet to parry over for a corner.

Less than ten minutes into the second half, UCD were awarded a penalty as Jamie Doyle broke free on the left wing and crossed low towards Ryan Swan who was dragged down. Gary O’Neil stepped up and sent Matthew Connor the wrong way dispatching the ball low to the left.

Waterford immediately responded and Dylan Reidy sent a number of crosses in from the right wing with no success, a couple of minutes later he turned McLoughlin twice before shooting straight at Corbet.

Doyle scored UCD’s second in the 63rd minute running onto the end of a low Kirwan cross to sidefoot into the corner from six yards. Waterford’s frustration began to show and McAlavey and Kiely received yellows for silly fouls.

UCD found more space up front as Waterford attempted to attack more, Doyle narrowly missed from the edge of the box before Swan had a close range effort deflected wide, minutes later Swan came onto the end of another low ball from the right to convert an almost identical goal to Doyle’s earlier finish.

Swan’s goal killed the game and UCD saw out the last ten minutes comfortably with Waterford substitute Anthony O’Donnell getting the only notable chance finding space on the edge of the box, but failing to curl the ball below the cross bar.

The result sees UCD climb to 4th with Waterford in 7th position two points ahead of bottom side Cobh Ramblers who travel to The Bowl on the 24th April.

UCD: Niall Corbet; Michael Leahy, Maxi Kougan, Thomas Boyle (Adam Harney 73), Ryan McLaughlin; Chris Mulhall, Gary O’Neill (Sean Coyne 81), Jack Watson, Eoin Kirwan (Samir Belhout 86), Jamie Doyle; Ryan Swan.
Subs not used: Karl Skinner (gk), Ian Ryan.

Booked: Watson (48)

Waterford United: Matthew Conor; Dean Reidy, Craig Burns, Shaun Corcoran, Shane Dineen (Patrick Fitzgerald 67), Dylan Mernagh, Shane Nolan (Anthony O’Donnell 86), Anthony McAlavey, Jack Doherty, Glenn Hawe (Sean Hurley 67), Willie John Kiely.
Subs not used: Robert Birdsall (gk), Mark Walsh, Ross Fitzpatrick, Mikie Rowe.

Booked: McAlavey (67), Kiely (78)

Referee: Simon Rogers

Attendance:169

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Jamie Doyle (UCD)