UCD battle back for a share of the spoils with Treaty

UCD and Treaty were forced to share the spoils of war in a tight, cagey affair at The Bowl.

The 10-men of UCD had man-of-the-match Eanna Clancy to thank for rescuing a point as his second half header drew an entertaining contest level as his side trailed to Mark Byrne’s first half strike for the visitors.

The promotion hopefuls’ stuttering form in recent weeks had seen them drop to third sitting a point behind Athlone Town who, gratefully took their place behind runaway leaders Cork City, following their win over the Students a week previous.

After a tense opening period, it was the home side who seemingly looked in control, enjoying the better possession and looking a real threat down the right-hand side through the marauding Alex Dunne and tricky Mikey McCullagh.

But the visitors, who enjoyed a narrow 1-0 win in South Dublin earlier in the season, grew into the game and carried the greater threat when getting forward.

It took until just after the half hour mark for the game to spring to life.

Steven Healy played a delicious defence splitting through ball to find wideman Thomas Considine, who broke the offside trap and found himself clear one-on-one.

The left winger was quickly faced by the onrushing Kian Moore and tried a delicate dink over the keeper but saw his effort cleared.

Moments later Mark Byrne did break the deadlock for United taking advantage of some sloppy play at the back from UCD, in which nobody – including Moore – seemed to take command of the loose ball, allowing Byrne to pick it up and roll home into an empty net.

Following what must have been a half time dressing down, the hosts piled on the pressure in search of the equaliser. Both McCullagh and Sam Verdon were desperately unlucky to see their efforts from the edge of the area fly just over.

And it was a case of cometh the hour, cometh the man when McCullagh whipped in a devilish inswinging corner, finding the head of towering centre back Clancy who powered his header downwards to level.

All the home side’s hard work was almost undone in a crazy few minutes when right back Alex Dunne received a second yellow for an unnecessary challenge in the middle of the park with 20-minutes remaining.

Their misery was almost compounded seconds later when Lee Devitt – just the third Treaty United player to make 100 competitive starts incidentally – almost marked the occasion with a wonder strike from distance but unfortunately smashed the crossbar.

With five minutes remaining the influential Devitt thought he had won it for his side but, following a genius piece of skill to fashion a yard of space at the top of the box, saw his low volley beat Moore all ends up but also agonisingly miss the bottom corner by a matter of inches.

To their credit the home side did well to holdout for their tenth draw of the season, defending resolutely to everything Treaty threw at them, but it will be the visitors heading back west disappointed with just the point.

UCD AFC: Kian Moore, Alex Dunne, Adam Wells (Donal Higgins, 45’), Eanna Clancy, Michael McCullagh, Michael Raggett (Hugh Parker, 60’), Niall Holohan, Colin Bolton, Adam Verdon (Cathal McCarthy, 88’), Luke O’Regan, Jake Doyle

Subs not used: Dara Kavanagh, Danu Kinsella-Bishop, Sam Norval, Adam Brennan, Kyle Donoghue, Sean Mackey

Treaty United: Corey Chambers, Ben Riordan, Lee Devitt, Yoyo Mahdy (Enda Curran, 68’), Thomas Considine (Trpimir Vrljicak, 83’), Stephen Christopher, Evan O’Connor, Fionn Doherty (Oisin O’ Reilly, 88’), Robbie Lynch, Mark Byrne, Steven Healy (Lee Lynch, 68’)

Subs not used: Michael Dike, Alec Byrne, Adam O’Halloran, Scott Kirkland, Darren Nwankwo

Referee: Declan Toland

Elsewhere on the night, Cork’s run to the title continued apace as Cathal O’Sullivan’s wonder strike saw them past Finn Harps at Turners Cross.

They end the night 15 points clear of Athlone Town who were far too strong for Longford Town in the Midlands El Classico, winning 4-1 at Lissywoollen.

De Town were in control and led at the break after Aaron Connolly pounced after the visitors failed to deal with a corner.

An own goal made it comfortable before Noah van Geenan got in with a late brace – a header and a smart finish from inside the box – while Jordan Adeyemo headed a late equaliser for Longford.

Wexford leapfrogged Cobh Ramblers into sixth place with a 3-0 victory in the clash between the sides at Ferrycarrig.

It took over an hour for the hosts to move ahead, but they scored thrice in 15 minutes as efforts from Aaron Dobbs, Mikey Rowe and Darragh Livingston saw the Slaneysiders close to within two points of fifth-place Bray, who occupy the last play-off place.

The Wicklow club came from 2-0 and 3-2 behind to earn a point away at Kerry.

A Ryan Kelliher brace gave the Munster men the ideal start at Mounthawk Park but Bray were level at the break thanks to goals from Darren Craven and Harry Groome.

Kerry moved ahead after the break as Kelliher completed his hattrick, but Ben Feeney had the final say on the night.