Powerful UL have luxury of stars on the bench

University of Limerick 2-23 Cork Institute of Technology 0-16: That Bobby Duggan, Barry Nash and Ronan Lynch were among the UL substitutes yesterday tells you a great deal about the strength of Brian Lohan’s team.

The latter pair won All- Ireland U-21 medals with Limerick in 2015 and made the transition to senior level last year. Duggan, from up the road in Clarecastle, saw game-time for the Banner under Davy Fitzgerald. All three had to be content with cameo roles in the second-half of this one-sided Fitzgibbon Cup group B encounter, while Limerick’s Pat Ryan, also listed among the UL reserves, did not see any action at all.

From the UL team which fell to Mary I in the 2016 decider, seven started here. Tony Kelly missed last year’s Fitzgibbon Cup weekend through injury, but showed well here, hitting two points a week and a half out from Ballyea’s All-Ireland Club semi-final. It was with this in mind that he was withdrawn by Lohan before the finish.

Tipperary’s All-Ireland-winning corner-forward John McGrath was another to stand out, the 22-year old having clocked 1-7 by the time referee Alan Kelly sounded the whistle for half-time.

His goal arrived in the 13th minute, the second UL major in the space of a minute. Waterford’s Stephen Bennett, having been set-up by Kelly, blasted the sliotar to the top right corner of Patrick Collins’ goal for the opening green flag of the contest.

Collins went short from the subsequent restart, but the intended target wasn’t found, McGrath snapped up possession and sent UL into a 2-6 to 0-4 lead. Andrew Coffey posted the CIT response and even though Frank Flannery’s outfit enjoyed the backing of a strong breeze in the opening period, the visitors were permanently on the back foot. Two first-half substitutions was a strong indicator of their plight.

The winners were 2-13 to 0-9 clear at the break and could have been further in front were it not for two fantastic saves by Collins to deny McGrath and lively half- forward Kevin Hehir. CIT, through Tomas O’Connor and the hard-working Mikey Kearney, registered three of the first four scores of the second-half to bring the gap back to eight points. No closer would they come, though, with Aidan McGuane, Kelly, Barry Heffernan, Hehir, McGrath, Bennett, Barry Nash and Ronan Lynch swelling the UL tally.

UL are on the road next Tuesday as they travel to Dublin to face DCU St Patrick’s, while CIT have a home fixture against NUIG.

Scorers for UL:

J McGrath (1-8, 0-6 frees, 0-1 ’65); S Bennett (1-1); K Hehir (0-4); B Heffernan, T Kelly (0-2 each); A McGuane, T Morrissey, G Hegarty, J Forde, R Lynch, B Nash (0-1 each).

Scorers for CIT:

M Kearney (0-11, 0-9 frees, 0-1 ’65); M Cahalane (0-2); R Hanley, T O’Connor, A Coffey (0-1 each).

UL:

D McCarthy (Limerick); M Casey (Limerick), B Troy (Kilkenny), L O’Connor (Clare); B Heffernan (Tipperary), J Forde (Tipperary), D Fitzgerald (Clare); A McGuane (Clare), T Kelly (Clare); T Morrissey (Limerick), G Hegarty (Limerick), K Hehir (Clare); J McGrath (Tipperary), M Mullins (Galway), S Bennett (Waterford).

Subs:

B Nash (Limerick) for Morrissey (41 mins); R Lynch (Limerick) for Mullins (49); L Lyons (Limerick) for Kelly (53); B Duggan (Clare) for Hegarty (53).

CIT:

P Collins (Cork); B Lyons (Kerry), D Fanning (Limerick), E Healy (Cork); J Good (Cork), C O’Neill (Cork), D Noonan (Cork); J Buckley (Kerry), R Hanley (Limerick); T O’Connor (Cork), M Kearney (Waterford), C Kingston (Cork); M Cahalane (Cork), C Keane (Cork), A Coffey (Tipperary).

Subs:

D Hartnett (Laois) for Lyons (23 mins); J O’Neill (Cork) for Buckley (26); S Walsh (Cork) for Hanley (HT, inj); A Keating (Cork) for Kingston (48); A Fenton (Cork) for O’Connor (48)

Referee:

A Kelly (Galway).