UCC booked their place in today's Sigerson Cup decider with a comfortable victory over Athlone IT in NUI Maynooth yesterday.

UCC 1-15
Athlone IT 0-7

The Cork students lived up to their favourites' billing by brushing aside the challenge of the Westmeath outfit who were appearing at the semi-final stage for the first time in 12 years. The victory leaves UCC just 60 minutes away from ending a 15-year wait for Sigerson Cup glory.

The game was decided in the lead-up to half-time when after UCC goalkeeper Ken O'Halloran twice produced magnificent saves to deny David Egan and Paul Doherty, the Cork side put together a brilliant six-man move which culminated in corner back Shane Enright scoring the only goal.

Trailing by 0-4 to 1-7 at the interval, Athlone had it all to do in the second half but with key forwards Ray Galligan and John Reynolds getting no change out of their direct opponents (both were withdrawn before the finish), UCC never looked in any danger.

Frank Burke did narrow the gap to five points immediately after the restart, but points in reply from Seamus Hayes and Barry O'Driscoll had stretched UCC's lead to 1-10 to 0-6 before the midlanders' hopes were well and truly ended when Doherty was shown a red card following an altercation with O'Driscoll.

Scorers - UCC: B O'Driscoll 0-5 (0-4f), S Enright 1-0, S Hayes 0-3, J Buckley, M Shields, D Casey (0-1f) 0-2 each, D Goold 0-1. Athlone IT: F Burke 0-3, R Galligan 0-2 (0-1f, 0-1 '45), D Reilly, D Egan 0-1 each.

UCC: K O'Halloran (Cork); E Cotter (Cork), E Hegarty (Cork), S Enright (Kerry); D Limrick (Cork), A Greaney (Kerry), P Corrigan (Limerick); M Shields (Cork), J Buckley (Kerry); K O'Driscoll (Cork), S Kiely (Cork), D Casey (Kerry); B O'Driscoll (Cork), S Hayes (Cork), D Kearney (Cork).
Subs: D Goold (Cork) for Kiely (50), M Collins (Cork) for Casey (50), P Honohan (Cork) for Hayes (50), D Óg O'Donovan (Cork) for Greaney (55), B Shanahan (Cork) for Corrigan (55).

ATHLONE IT: G Connaughton (Westmeath); S Higgins (Roscommon), D Masterson (Longford), James Reynolds (Westmeath); M Mitchell (Offaly), K Smyth (Longford), D Reilly (Galway); G Dennigan (Longford), B Connors (Offaly); P Doherty (Mayo), D Egan (Offaly), C Blake (Galway); F Burke (Galway), John Reynolds (Offaly), R Galligan (Cavan).
Subs: N Judge (Sligo) for Galligan (44), P Bannon (Westmeath) for John Reynolds (48), F Reilly (Westmeath) for Higgins (53), D Cash (Kildare) for Egan (58).

Referee: Gary McCormack (Dublin). Tweet

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