SSE Airtricity First Division: UCD 1 (Clancy 59') Treaty Utd 1 (Mark Byrne 41') 10-man UCD and Treaty United were forced to share the spoils in a dramatic encounter at The UCD Bowl. Mark Byrne had put the visitors in front in the first half, only for Eanna Clancy to rescue a point in the second half, as The Students were forced to play the last 20 minutes a man down. Early on, Byrne showed good strength to get over his marker at the back post to connect with Ben O’Riordan’s inswinging corner, but saw his powerful header fly inches past the top corner with some of their vocal travelling support thinking it had crept in.
This seemed to kick the home side into gear. Both Alex Dunne and Michael McCullagh looked threatening down the right-hand side, creating danger at every opportunity. Just after the half-hour mark, the visitors fashioned the chance of the game when Steven Healy played a defence splitting through ball to Thomas Considine.
The left winger found himself clear through on goal, opting for a clever dinked finish over the onrushing Kian Moore but failed to get enough pace on the effort as it was cleared to safety. The home side failed to heed the warning and fell behind moments later following a disastrous mix-up at the back. A long goal kick came off the head of Niall Holohan, and wasn’t dealt with by Moore or his UCD rearguard, allowing Byrne to pick up the loose ball and finish into an empty net for a deserved lead.
With the wind in their sails, the hosts went.
