DCU recovered from a sluggish start to see off the challenge of a near full strength Offaly in their O'Byrne Cup quarter-final clash at Tullamore. DCU..0-15 Offaly...1-7 Pat Roe's charges, who enjoyed a facile first round victory over Athlone IT last weekend, were brought crashing back down to earth by an impressive DCU side who also ended Louth's interests in the competition last Thursday. The students were far more clinical in front of goal and their margin of victory would have been greater but for a late Offaly consolation goal from substitute Alan Mulhall. Niall McNamee, who was superbly marshalled by Dublin's Paddy Andrews, opened the scoring from a free inside the first minute before ex-Dublin minor John O'Hara doubled the home side's lead. DCU, for whom goalkeeper Philip Brogan produced a series of fine saves, had to wait until the 18th minute to open their account through Shane Smith. They upped their performance considerably in the second quarter and with Conor Mortimer, Seanie Johnston and David Kelly in fine form in the full forward line, they went on to lead by 0-7 to 0-3 at the interval. Offaly introduced Ciaran McManus for the second half, but the vastly experienced Tubber man made little impact as the Niall Moyna-managed DCU continued to dictate proceedings. The Faithful County fell away badly in the final quarter, conceding points to Mortimer, Johnston and Craig Rogers to trail by double scores, 0-14 to 0-7. DCU 'keeper Brogan was finally beaten in the 64th minute by Mulhall, but by then the students were assured of a semi-final joust with Longford next weekend. Tweet

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