Students join Rovers in round two of Europa League

UCD joined Shamrock Rovers last night as the Irish representatives in the second round of the Europa League, spiking their cash-flow in the process.

The fairytale for the Students continued in Luxembourg where, despite losing 2-1 against F91 Dudelange, they progressed on away goals by virtue of last week’s 1-0 home victory.

The team that qualified for the competition through the Fair Play route will now confront a more difficult challenge in next week’s second round when they face a Slovan Bratislava side fresh from their 9-0 aggregate thumping of Europa.

Banking an extra €200,000 on top of the €210,000 they’d already gained for qualifying for Europe will provide a welcome boost for UCD’s coffers.

It allows them clear the debt accumulated by the University’s League of Ireland side whilst looking to the future by investing in a new 4G all-weather pitch at Belfield.

Liam Buckley’s plans of boosting his budget for this transfer window were ripped to shreds by Skonto Riga at Inchicore, as the Lativians won 2-0 to seal a 4-1 aggregate victory.

As they did in the first leg, Skonto struck twice on the break, the second from a hotly-disputed penalty.