Holders UCC turn on power

Having beaten Waterford IT and IT Carlow, even with a defeat here UCC would still have topped the group on a head-to-head tie-break. Such an event was unlikely, and so it proved, even without Cork’s Conor Lehane and Tipp panellist James Barry.
The visitors’ tough task was made nigh-impossible by the second-minute sending-off of full-back James Kelly, and though Willie Griffin opted to point the resultant 20m free, goals soon followed for UCC. First, Shane O’Donnell touched home Rob O’Shea’s handpass beyond goalkeeper Stevie Russell after the wing-forward had made a surging run, and then Griffin added a solo goal of his own.