Leinster Club HC Final James Stephens 2-13UCD 1-12: The first real chill of a winter's Sunday came yesterday and on a Portlaoise pitch which was hurlable only by the grace of some good groundkeeping the College and the Village gave us something which made the hipflasks redundant.
What can you say? Love UCD, loathe UCD or merely want the conditions of their presence in club competition modified you could only have sympathy for them yesterday when they conceded the entire margin of their defeat in the final minute.
Brian Campion, a Laois lad inserted between the sticks for the College, had the misfortune to see a long ball from Brian McEvoy drop down out of the white winter sky with the seconds ebbing away. Cold hands. A period of inaction. Two inrushing forwards. The definitions of pressure all attached themselves to one ball.
Campion put his hand up. Caught that ball. Saw it squirm from his grasp. There was a chance to clear but the UCD defence seemed mesmerised.
Matt Ruth, a scion and a substitute, rushed in to pull to the net. James Stephens, the All-Ireland champions, were a goal up. Poor Campion saw his confidence drain through his boots. He survived another scare and then misplaced a puck-out. David McCormack gratefully returned the ball over the bar. Game over. James Stephens's reign continues.
The cruel thing for the students to recall will be that there was a time in the game when their dominance made them seem unassailable. A cold goalkeeper spilling a high ball is one of those disasters which can unhinge the best-laid plans of any team. UCD will reflect just as ruefully though at the three soft points they missed early in the second half and at the gradual erosion of their midfield dominance.
Fact is, when UCD were good yesterday they were very good. The first blood fell to them in the eighth minute. UCD's half-back line was already showing signs of domination and a long ball slipped in behind the Village rearguard. Brendan Murphy got a backhanded flick on it. The ball rolled slowly along the ground towards the UCD goal and John O'Connor won the race to make the next contact. His pull to the net opened up a game which had been level.
From there they pulled away. Stephen Lucey was magnificent at midfield; Bryan Barry not far behind him. Eamon Ryan at centre back was forcing errors from Eoin Larkin every time last year's wonderkid got near the ball. UCD were working hard and creating imaginatively.
For the Village the half-time score made better reading than the stats. They were within six points or two scores of the College. It had, however, taken 22 minutes for Village's first point from play to arrive, Paddy O'Brien, a midfielder, taking the credit. Otherwise the Kilkenny champions failed to score from play in the first half and only Larkin's defiant efficiency with the dead ball kept them in touch.
UCD, regardless again of your view of them, work hard for each other and the sweat and labour they submitted in holding the All-Ireland champions' forward lines scoreless from play in the first half was remarkable. So too were the two fine points which wing back Colm Everard found time to score in that period.
Most of what was special in that first half came from the students. A wonderful sideline cut from Bryan Barry was followed a few minutes later by a sideline cut played adroitly to Lucey who drove it over the bar before the Village defence had time to register their surprise let alone their response.
UCD introduced Redmond Barry after the break. Barry went into the full-forward line but it was the UCD half forwards who began to struggle. James Stephens made switches in midfield and in the half forwards. They worked well. Lucey's influence waned. On the wing Jackie Tyrell looked better and better as the game went on. UCD were suddenly looking a little more blunt.
The students went almost 20 minutes on either side of the break without scoring, as James Stephens mustered four points (all from Larkin frees) to haul themselves back into the game.
Still it took until the 45th minute for one of the Village forwards to score from play. David McCormack made the breakthrough and that score, followed by a stirring catch from Donncha Cody, set the game alight.
Larkin had yet another free to leave James Stephens just two points adrift. Then a long ball from Tyrell dropped near the UCD goal. Ruth pulled. Fellow substitute Shane Egan pulled again. Whisk. The ball was in the UCD net. James Stephens led with nine minutes left.
Had the drama ended there it would have been sufficient. Bryan Barry equalised though. Larkin had a point from play. Murphy pulled a goal chance for UCD wide. Everard hit his third and most sublime point of the day to level things again. We braced ourselves for a draw not knowing what lay ahead.
JAMES STEPHENS: F Cantwell; D Cody, M Phelan, D Grogan; J Tyrell, P Larkin, P Barry; B McEvoy (0-2, frees) , P O' Brien (0-1); J Murray, E Larkin (0-8, seven frees), G Whelan; E McCormack, R Hayes, D McCormack (0-2). Subs: S Egan (1-0) for G Whelan (41 mins), M Ruth (1-0) for J Murray (44 mins).
UCD: B Campion; D Walton, M Fitzgerald, E Campion; D Fitzgerald, E Ryan, C Everard (0-3); B Barry (0-3, frees), S Lucey (0-2); P Morrissey (0-3, frees), B Phelan, E O' Gorman; T Fitzgerald (0-1), J O'Connor (1-0), B Murphy. Sub: R Barry for T Fitzgerald (half-time).
Referee: B Gavin (Offaly).
