Break before Fitzgibbon quarter-finals allows MTU time to sharpen up

While the overall performance may not have been at the levels of their opening-round win over UCC, MTU Cork secured the same outcome in Thursday night’s Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup clash with Garda College.

Having begun their campaign with a ten-point victory in a cross-town derby, the Bishopstown college had 13 to spare in the end against the trainee gardaí, 2-20 to 0-13 the final score. However, it was a win that had to be earned as the half-time score was 0-11 to 0-10 in favour of MTU – and they had to be thankful to corner-back Tadhg O’Leary Hayes for a goal-line clearance in the first half, when they trailed by a point.

Once Aaron McEvoy – who finished with 1-5, all from play – and Alan Walsh scored second-half goals for MTU, they were able to pull clear.

“I suppose we were anticipating a bit of a dogfight and the guards were always going to pose a different bit of a challenge,” said MTU manager Pádraig Gould.

“The conditions probably suited them as well – the first half, we stuttered through, I suppose, it was a bit so-so.

“We spoke about a few things at half-time, we addressed them and thankfully in the second half we found another gear and we got a bit more.

“We started winning a lot more breaking ball around the middle third, got a better structure and organisation, so thankfully anyway that paid dividends.

“The goal, that was a bit of a turning point, that was probably a dagger through their heart, but it took lot longer to come than we anticipated, pretty much.”

The win secured top spot in the three-team Group B – and with that comes a home quarter-final tie.

UCC must travel to Templemore to take on Garda College next Thursday in what will be a play-off for a spot in the last eight, but with the caveat that that will be against the winners of Group A, likely to be last year’s champions UL or runners-up DCU Dóchas Éireann.

Having the two-week gap between games is welcomed by Gould.

“Beforehand, if we had been offered top spot in the group, we would have taken that, so we have to be happy,” he said.

“We have two weeks out to prepare for a home quarter-final, so we'll regroup Sunday night for training.

“We're playing the Cork U20s on Tuesday, so that’ll give fellas a chance to get more game-time and push that competition for places that we have in the panel.

“But we know that performance level will need to come up.”

In tandem with the opportunity to work on things, the scheduling will also allow them to assess their next opponents – the repeat of last year’s final takes place in Dublin next Thursday.

“DC are playing UL and we’re playing the losers of that game,” Gould said.

“We have a chance to study and observe, and it's nice to be in a quarter-final before the last games are taking place.

“We have a chance, again, to look at the lads and the main thing for us is to worry what's going on internally.

“We can only play what's in front of us, but we have to address a few things – our structure was not there, our work ethic dropped drastically. Our use of the ball wasn't where it should be.

“It's nice to be working them on looking ahead and we know what we need to do to improve. We're happy to be where we are.”