Agony for Cork IT as NUIG squeeze through

Cork IT 0-19 NUIG 0-19: There may have been nothing between them on the scoreboard, but NUIG’s marginally superior score difference over the previous two rounds saw the visitors secure a quarter-final berth at CIT’s expense.

Both sides entered last night’s concluding Group B fixture having lost to table-toppers UL and having beaten DCU St Pats, so it was very much winner-takes-all. There was to be no winner on the night, however, and NUIG got the nod on account of their plus two scoring difference, a solitary point better than CIT’s plus one scoring difference.

There was bitter disappointment for CIT who were not led once in this entire contest despite being reduced to 14 men after a minute and a half - corner-forward Colm Keane received a straight red card for a late tackle on Conor Cleary. John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer made his first start of the campaign and his point 31 seconds into proceedings set the tone for a busy first-half performance which had the hosts 0-12 to 0-8 clear at the break.