Mary Hannigan
She might have been a frustrated spectator at Belfield on Saturday, but by full time Linda O'Neill was wondering if she'd win her place back in the UCD team, never mind the Irish XI, such was the quality of the display against reigning champions Hermes in a 4-4 draw in the weekend's only Penneys' Leinster League division one fixture.
O'Neill tore her interior cruciate ligament in June. She had an operation at the end of August and is hoping to be back in action in two months, which would put her in contention for a place in the Irish squad that travels to New Zealand in March for the Olympic qualifier.
"I'm swimming, getting 'physio' twice a week, but it's hard to know when you'll recover from an injury like this," she said.
O'Neill described Sue O'Connor, UCD's right-back on Saturday, as "fantastic" against Hermes, in a game that saw the students trail 2-0, then lead 4-2 with 20 minutes to go, before conceding a last-minute equaliser to Aoife Mitchell.
O'Connor and O'Neill's fellow Irish international Ciara O'Brien shone for UCD in a game that saw Hermes surrender a 2-0 lead before half-time, with Catherine Murray, Rachel Keegan, Eimer Horan and Katy Fraser combining, either side of the break, to transform the deficit into a two-goal advantage for the students.
But Hermes dug deep to take a point from a game they were on track to win, but which, in the end, they looked like losing.
In the first round of the Irish Senior Cup, all four Leinster sides turned home advantage into victories, with two goals from Siobhan Kane helping Pembroke Wanderers to the biggest win of the day, a 7-1 defeat of NUIG. Corinthian, Three Rock and Trinity beat Waterford, Banbridge and Greenfields, respectively.
Victorians got the better of Ballyclare in their all-Ulster meeting, winning 3-1, while a Ciara Murphy goal settled the Galway versus Parkview tie in the Connacht champions' favour. First-half goals from Kate Lutton and Diane Topley paved the way for Portadown's 2-1 win over UCC in Cork.
Results in SPORTSROUND-UP
