O'CONNOR HAT-TRICK LEADS THE WAY AT GRANGEGORMAN

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES FOOTBALL

DARRAGH O’CONNOR WAS IN REMPANT FORM FOR TU-DUBLIN CITY CAMPUS

Colleges FAI Plate – Round One

TU DUBLIN-CITY CAMPUS…..9 DUNDALK IT ‘B’…...0

BY John Hudson

Gavin Fleming refused to get carried away as the TU Dublin City Campus first team proved much too strong for the Dundalk IT ‘B’ side and served up a stunning nine goal fest at Grangegorman to progress to the next round of the Colleges FAI Plate competition.

The City Campus manager’s charges easily accounted for the Co Louth outfit who are in a division below Fleming’s Grangegorman based First Division charges.

‘Although our league form has been good, we suffered a 6-0 defeat in the Challenge Cup at ATU Sligo ‘B’ a couple of weeks ago and so getting a chance to redeem ourselves and stay involved in another knock out competition is always good for the lads’ said Fleming.

Some fine performances in Division One North has also got the City Campus boys into a challenging position to claim a top two finish and a semi-final place if they can account for the top side DCU next week at Grangegorman.

TU Dublin raced out of the blocks early on and were a goal in front after nine minutes with impressive centre forward Darragh O’Connor applying a neat finish to put away a left wing cross from Fayo Adeogun.

O’Connor went on to stretch the lead on the half hour, beating goalkeeper Jakub Kula from the penalty spot after Adeogun was taken down in the box by full back. Dominion Owonumni.

The TU Dublin man then went on to complete his hat trick with ten minutes of the half remaining with a fine individual goal and to make matters worse for Dundalk they conceded two more penalties on the stroke of halftime put away by first Adeogun and then Conor Kennedy for a 5-0 advantage.

Fleming wasted little time in emptying his bench after the resumption and the substitutes all staked claims for starting spots by adding four more goals between them.

George Fitzpatrick hit two plus one each from Stefan Ugbesia and Fola Aki completed the nine-goal total.

GAVIN FLEMING: BARKING OUT INSTRUCTIONS AT GRANGEGORMAN. ***Pics: Eamon Scott***

Fleming had put together a side that are developing into a force to be reckoned with and look likely to be among the honours this season.

While for Dundalk progress in the league is still a possibility if they can get themselves into a top two finishing position in their group with wins against Queens University ‘B’ and St Mary’s Belfast in their remaining two fixtures.

TU Dublin-City Campus: Michael Quinn; Alex Trotim, Sesa Uduehi, Naz Ajaegbo, David Ayoola; Finn Daly Dalton, Conor Kennedy; Denis Toro, Dami Ioiaji, Fayo Adeogun; Darragh O’Connor. Subs all used: Steten Ugbesig, Isaigh Philips, George Fitzpatrick, Ismael Coulibely, Fola Aki.

Dundalk IT ‘B’: Jakup Kula; Dominion Owonumni, Alex Shanley, Bryan Ferris, Darren Kelly; Dara Akinade, Marlos Francuco; Tsid Banda, Jose OOrlando, Kieran Iqbonsonu; David Fagbuele. Subs all used: Jake Howlin, Stephen McCudden, Daniel Gibbons, Aka Okafor.