English and Rodgers turn on the style for UL

The stars of the show were the inside forward duo of Adam English and Mark Rogers, who contributed 2-6 from play between them before being withdrawn midway through the second half. 

SKIPPER: UL and Clare's Mark Rodgers. Pic: Lorraine O'Sullivan, Inpho

Fitzgibbon Cup: UL 3-25 ATU Galway 0-14

The UL wolves didn’t take long to devour a weakened ATU Galway side in the first game of this year’s Fitzgibbon Cup, racking up a 13-point half-time lead in the Connacht GAA Airdome before easing off in the second half.

Early points from Cian Folan and John Cooney suggested Mike Ryan’s side might give UL plenty to think about.

Three wides were registered by Limerick students before Mark Fitzgerald got them off the mark with an elegant strike from distance after five minutes of play, and once that score from the talented Waterford man got them started, they didn’t stop.

Fitzgerald and TJ Brennan were imperious along the spine of the defence, Colin Coughlan and Killian Sampson controlled the two flanks with Coughlan chipping in with some excellent scores, while Brian O’Grady and Patrick O’Donovan were also very sharp in the middle third.

However, the stars of the show were the inside forward duo of Adam English and Mark Rodgers, who contributed 2-6 from play between them before being withdrawn midway through the second half. 

They each picked off points from out on the sideline and Rodgers found the net as UL racked up a 1-19 to 0-9 interval lead, before noticeably moving down a gear after half-time. 

English added their second goal but it was clear that they felt their work was done, and were it not for injuries to John Cooney and Keelan Creavan, two of the better performers on the ATU Galway side, the underdogs might have eaten into the lead.

As it was Conor Molloy picked off some fine scores but UL kept ticking over, with Ian Byrne adding a third goal.

Scorers for UL: A English 1-4, G O’Connor 0-6 (0-5f), M Rodgers 1-2, I Byrne 1-0, M Fitzgerald 0-3, C Coughlan 0-3, B O’Grady 0-3, P O’Donovan 0-2, F O’Connor 0-1, C Hanley 0-1f.

Scorers for ATU Galway: C Molloy 0-7 (0-4f), J Cooney 0-4 (0-3f), C Folan 0-1, R Meehan 0-1.

UL (Limerick unless stated): C Hanley; M Corcoran (Tipperary), TJ Brennan (Galway), F O’Connor; K Sampson (Offaly), M Fitzgerald (Waterford), C Coughlan; B O’Grady, B O’Sullivan (Cork); P O’Donovan, G O’Connor (Tipperary), C O’Meara (Clare); A English, M Rodgers (Clare), J Power (Waterford).

Subs: I Byrne (Kilkenny) for O’Donovan (h-t), A O’Connor for Power (h-t), C Moran (Tipperary) for Rogers (41), S O’Hanlon (Galway) for English (47), J Conneally (Clare) for Brennan (50).

ATU GALWAY (Galway unless stated): M Egan; O Kenny, S Neary, D Parr; E Cooley, J Cooney, R Hickey; R Meehan, E Madden (Clare); E Hunt, B O’Connor, C Molloy; K Creavan, C Folan, D Shaughnessy.

Subs: K Forde for Cooley (h-t), J Downey for O’Connor (h-t), R Lyons for Creavan (38), A Donohue for Cooney (43), E Gardiner for Hickey (52).

Referee: J Judge (Mayo).