UCD cruise to dominant victory over Cobh Ramblers

Killian Cailloce removed all doubt in the 85th minute as he showed good control to power home UCD’s third and Ciaran Behan then added the fourth on 88 minutes to complete the rout.

UCD’s Michael McCullagh and Rhys Brennan of Cobh Ramblers. Pic: Nick Elliott/Inpho

First Division: UCD 4 Cobh Ramblers 0 

A controlled and dominant display secured all three points for UCD as they cruised past Cobh Ramblers at the UCD Bowl.

The game’s first chance fell to UCD’s Louis Dignam on five minutes but his shot from the edge of the box was deflected out for a corner.

Cobh had to wait until the 20th minute for their first chance. Wilson Waweru, who was the only Ramblers man showing any attacking invention early, had a wild shot that was off target.

That roused the Students. 

A gently floated cross from Mikey McCullagh was met by the head of Stephen Mohan, who buried it in the bottom corner to give UCD the lead on 23 minutes. 

Luke O’Regan nearly doubled the lead for UCD a minute later but Cobh keeper Timothy Martin got down to save with his feet.

Ramblers won their first corner of the game in the 47th minute, having given up 10 to UCD in the first half. Mikey Carroll’s resulting shot from it was deflected and forced a good save from Dara Kavanagh in the UCD goal.

Rhys Brennan’s long shot went narrowly over the bar in the 50th minute, as Cobh enjoyed their best attacking spell of the game so far.

The Students reacted quickly. McCullagh turned provider as his cross found the head of Hugh Smith who headed in at the near post to make it 2-0 to the hosts on 53 minutes.

UCD were hungry for a third to put the game away and McCullagh will have felt unlucky not to get it as his effort in the 56th minute went narrowly wide. Mohan followed up with a fine effort on 62 minutes that forced a save from Martin.

Killian Cailloce removed all doubt in the 85th minute as he showed good control to power home UCD’s third. Ciaran Behan then added the fourth from close range on 88 minutes to complete the rout.

UCD: Dara Kavanagh, Luca Cailloce, Carl Lennox, Adam Wells, Mikey McCullagh (Mikey Raggett 83 min), Louis Dignam (Jayden Goad 89 min), Ciaran Behan (Colin Bolton 89 min), Hugh Smith (Matthew Alonge 89 min), Niall Holohan, Luke O’Regan, Stephen Mohan (Killian Cailloce 83 min).

Cobh Ramblers: Timothy Martin, Callum Honohan, Brendan Frahill, Wilson Waweru (Rhys Kelly-Noonan 63 min), Rhys Gourdie, Dylan McGlade (Anthony Adenopo 63 min), Rhys Brennan, Lucas Curtin, Oran Crowe (Kai O’Neill 63 min, Ethan O’Donovan 89 min), Mikey Carroll (James O’Halloran 89), Jason Abbott.

Ref: Neil Doyle.