Mary Immaculate College will face NUI Galway in the semi-finals of the Fitzgibbon Cup next Tuesday night after both sides came through their respective quarter-finals this afternoon.

With both games being staged in Limerick, it was Mary I that were the home victors today over Cork IT on a comfortable score-line of 2-20 to 0-12.

Gary Cooney’s goal after just two minutes had the hosts on the path to their win early on as they went on to lead by 1-10 to 0-6 at the half, with Thomas Monaghan stroking over a hat-trick of points from play in the opening quarter.

Once the 2017 champions netted their second goal via what was a true gem from Cork’s Luke Meade the game was well and truly over as a contest, with Limerick star Aaron Gillane going on to register 0-9 in a fine scoring performance over the 60 minutes.

The other clash saw NUI Galway and Limerick IT serve up a thriller at the latter’s home grounds, where it finished 1-15 to 2-10 in the visitors’ favour.

Having led by 0-10 to 1-3 at the half, the Galway lads fell behind once Robert Byrnes netted LIT’s second goal on 40 minutes before Conor Sheedy stroked home a major at the other end just a mere minute later.

The lead went back and forth until Peter Duggan’s late ‘65’ drew the game level for LIT with two minutes left in regulation prior to Galway’s Brian Concannon putting the men in maroon back in front headed into injury-time.

It was there that the home side had their chance to snatch victory with a penalty which would be flashed wide of the post by Diarmaid Byrnes as NUI Galway held on for their date with Mary I.

Later on this evening, UCC will battle it out with IT Carlow at the Mardyke (throw-in 7pm), while DCU welcome capital rivals DIT (throw-in at 7.30pm) to see which two teams will complete the competition’s semi-final line-up.

Mary Immaculate College - E Cahill; S Downey, D Prendergast, C Morgan; E Ryan, D Browne, T Grimes (0-1); L Meade (1-1), P Hickey (0-1); C Guilfoyle (0-1), A Gillane (0-9, 5f, 1'65, 1sl), C O’Brien (0-1); G Cooney (1-1), T Monaghan (0-4), M O’Loughlin (0-1). Subs: B Buckley for E Ryan, S Burke for M O’Loughlin, E Kelly for G Cooney, S Farrell for C O’Brien.

Cork IT - P Collins; D Fanning, E Healy, K Galvin; D Harrington, E Heffernan, C Prunty; D Noonan, J Good; S Cummins (0-2), R Walsh (0-1), B Everard (0-1); J Beausang (0-6, 5f), A Coffey (0-1), J Cooper. Subs: W Hurley (0-1) for J Cooper, K Duggan for J Good, J Elsted for R Walsh.

Referee - T Walsh.

**

NUI Galway - S Hennessy; S Kennedy, J Fitzpatrick, D Connolly; C Caulfield, P Hoban, A Greaney; S Loftus (0-1), I Fox; B Concannon (0-3), M Lynch, L Forde; C Sheedy (1-1), C Whelan (0-1), E Niland (0-9, 7f). Subs: S Fletcher for L Forde, B Corry for C Sheedy, S McArdle for C Caulfield.

Limerick IT - K Nugent; P Delaney, J McCarthy, D Moran; D Byrnes, S Ryan, R Byrnes (1-2); D Dempsey (0-1), E Boyce; P Duggan (0-3, 1f, 2'65), B Fanning, R Doody; P Casey (1-3), O Kelly, D Reidy. Subs: O O’Reilly for R Doody, C Cooney for P Delaney, J Conway (0-1) for B Fanning, R Murphy for D Moran.

Referee - J Ryan.

Join the hoganstand.com match tracker on Saturday and Sunday for live coverage of the Allianz Football League, as well as the All-Ireland club championships.

Tweet

Most Read Stories