REPORT: UCD AFC 4-1 Waterford

UCD’s fine recent form continued with a 4-1 win over Waterford at the Bowl on Friday night.

They were ahead at the break, after Gary O’Neill played a big part in both goals. Alan Reynolds brought on Rory Feely and Bastien Hery at half-time, but they immediately found themselves two down again.

Richie O’Farrell got the third, before Sean McDonald completed the scoring late on. It means 7 points from a possible 9 at home for The Students, who are out of the bottom two for 24 hours, at least.

Waterford started brightly, but they couldn’t take advantage, with a dipping Lunney shot the closest they went to scoring. UCD took the lead on 21 minutes. O’Neill was brought down after Yoyo Mahdy had stolen a Waterford throw-in.

The Tralee man stepped up to take the penalty he had won, and he made no mistake. Less than three minutes later, the UCD skipper was playing a significant part in the Students’ second-goal.

His free-kick from the edge of the box beat Connor, but came back off the underside of the crossbar. The ball bounced up nicely, leaving Mahdy with the simplest of headers past the scrambling Blues keeper.

It took them time to recover to the brace of blows, but Waterford began to put some good play together once more. They had one back with just over five minutes to go until the break. Aaron Drinan was put through.

His shot was pushed away by Kearns, but only into the path of Scott Twine, who poked the ball home. It was three immediately after half-time. Straight from an O’Neill corner, O'Farrell rose highest to head the ball into the right corner, and past Connor.

It was four with just over 15 minutes to go. McDonald became the ultimate impact-sub, taking advantage of a lose back pass from Kevin Lynch. He got the bounce of the ball, after a contest with the outrushing Connor, and he was able to finish to an empty net. UCD end the night just three points off 6th place, the spot currently occupied by Waterford.