DCU suffer early league defeat

SENIOR HURLING LEAGUE DIV 2B: UUJ 1-14, DCU 0-12

The senior hurling team got their league campaign off to a less than ideal start when they suffered a five point defeat to UUJ at the DCU sports grounds last week.

They showed good promise early on with points from Emmet McCabe(free), Donnacha Kinsella and Tadgh O’Hullachain giving them a slender one-point advantage after ten minutes. Their next score, courtesy of corner forward Alan Campion, did not come until the 21st minute but by then UUJ had surged into a three-point lead.

DCUs most dangerous attacker Joe Cullen then registered his first score of the game before four unanswered points from the northerners put further daylight between the two sides. Another Cullen point left the hosts five points adrift at the interval.

DCU fought bravely to close the gap in the second half but conceded a vital goal on 39 minutes that left them with too much to do. Joe Cullen found his range superbly with four second half frees as DCU began to play with more vigour and look more threatening in front of goal.

Alan Campion added to the tally with another fine point and Diarmuid Horan also got his name on the scoreboard but it was not enough. With the margin reduced to three Eoin O’Mahony found space nine minutes from time but his effort flashed agonisingly wide. UUJ tacked on two further scores after that and did enough to see the game out until the end.

DCU matched the opposition in most areas of the field and can take some encouragement from the game. The difference came in front of goal where UUJ were perhaps more prolific than a DCU side which missed chances that on another day might have went in. The DCU hurlers will now make the trip up to Queens University, Belfast in the next round where they will be hoping to make amends for this defeat and notch their first win of the new campaign.

Photo: Julie Anne Sheridan.