“Robbed it” and “I think the guards are outside for that robbery” were some of the humorous quotes from UCD manager Collie O’Neill following his sides quite incredible 1-0 victory over Shelbourne at Tolka Park. In an incredibly one sided game that
“Robbed it” and “I think the guards are outside for that robbery” were some of the humorous quotes from UCD manager Collie O’Neill following his sides quite incredible 1-0 victory over Shelbourne at Tolka Park.
In an incredibly one sided game that saw Shels do everything bar put the ball in the net, the UCD boss knew his side had gotten away with one. “We had what, two shots on goal in the whole game and even the goal that went in, I don’t think anyone knew that it had gone in!”
UCD snatched all three points with an incredible first time volley from substitute Ben Hanrahan, following a long kick up field from man of the match Niall Corbett. The goal came as quite a shock, not only to Shels who had enough chances to win two games, but to almost everybody in attendance bar the goalscorer reacting as the ball hit the advertising board behind the goal and coming straight back out. A reflective O’Neill stated: “Its not often that we’ve been second best in a game and come away with a win. Most of the time were dominating games, having chances so its nice to be the other way around for a change.”
In defence of his sides lackluster performance, he was quick to say “I think the lads were just tired from the extra time on Monday in Dundalk, it took a lot out of them. A few lads were even saying after the warm up tonight, their legs were feeling heavy even though we had a light week training they had nothing in the tank.”
A quite bemused and stunned Shels boss Owen Heary couldn’t believe what he saw, in arguably his sides’ best performance of the season thus far. “ I’m gutted for the lads, I thought we more than matched them and they’re a good footballing side. We had 14 clear-cut chances, and they had two and took one. I thought the least we should have gotten from that was a draw and clean sheet.”
Clearly disappointed at how his side switched off for a minute, which cost them he went onto say, “From the keeper, it’s a long clearance. The center half needs to deal with it, doesn’t, lets it bounce which is a cardinal sin and we’re one down, its cost us again.”
Next up for Heary’s troops is a big chance to bounce back from tonights bitterly disappointing defeat is tasty looking encounter with local rivals Bohemians in the Leinster Senior Cup on Monday.
