Fitzgibbon Cup: UCC primed for make-or-break clash with Garda College

While it is still the round-robin stage of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup, it is essentially knockout fare for UCC as they travel to Templemore today.

The last game in Group B of the competition pits UCC against hosts Garda College (2.30pm) with both having been beaten by MTU Cork, who have secured top spot in the group.

A better scoring-difference means that a draw would suffice for UCC but manager Ray Delaney is not thinking in such terms.

“After our last game, nobody can take anything for granted,” he says.

“We didn't perform, we left ourselves down as a group and nobody was happy about the whole thing.

“So, it's knockout, whoever wins goes through, and that's the way we're looking at it. It's straight knockout, everything could finish on Thursday.”

Prior to Christmas, UCC won Division 1 of the Higher Education Hurling League and then beat Cork in the Canon O’Brien Cup, leaving them well-set ahead of their opener at home to MTU a fortnight ago.

However, a ten-point defeat halted their progress.

“That's the one thing that is sort of frustrating us, that we can't understand what went wrong,” Delaney says.

“Everything was going well, everything was going very well. The lads seemed well up for it – if you're playing MTU and you can't be up for that game, a local derby, then what's the point?

“But there are no excuses – MTU were better than us on the night, they played really well, they played fantastic and best of luck to them.

“We didn’t perform, we weren’t left to perform, but we did not perform and that’s very frustrating.

The two-week break since could be said to be a positive in terms of process the loss and gearing up for a make-or-break tie.

At the same time, Delaney acknowledges that there are other challenges in terms of availability of their best players.

“You have the two-week gap to regroup, but then you don't have your county players, because they’re obviously gone,” he says.

“We played the Cork U20s last Thursday night without any senior inter-county players, so that can be a bit difficult and a bit awkward to keep a bit of momentum going.

“Again, there are no excuses – we were beaten on the night by a better team, very, very frustrating, devastating I would say, but we have a knockout game on Thursday and we know that if we don't perform, especially after watching the Guards’ first-half performance the other night, we're in serious trouble.”

Garda College have Watergrasshill’s Dáire O’Leary in their ranks, with the Cork panellist impressive at centre-back as they frustrated MTU for spells last week before the Bishopstown college pulled away in the second half.

Though they do not have a multitude of stars, the strength of the collective is an asset, Delaney feels.

“Maybe the fact that, apart from Dáire, they might not have as many inter-country players as other colleges, it's easier to have everybody at training,” he says.

“Again, we know what we have to do. We have to turn up and if we don't turn up, then everything could be finished.

“All the good vibes and all the nice talk which was there before Christmas counts for nothing.”