UNIVERSITY OF GALWAY 4-24

MTU CORK 1-14

By Kevin Egan in Dangan

UNIVERSITY of Galway remain in the hunt for an 11th Fitzgibbon Cup title. On Wednesday night in Dangan, they bared their claws in routing MTU of Cork in the competition’s quarter-final in Dangan.

Yet in the opening quarter, the Rebels showed up well, at least in defence and midfield before being blown away when University of Galway got going. Tiernan Killeen and Colm Molloy were the star turns in a devastating showing.

Killeen anchored a defensive sextet that was always in complete control, but MTU Cork had the answer for that in the early stages as Ciarán Joyce, Evan Murphy and Sam Quirke hoisted over some magnificent points from long range. The visitors led by two points on a couple of occasions, and still held a narrow 0-7 to 0-6 advantage as the game moved into the second quarter.

Then Niall Collins broke a tackle and with Johnny Murphy playing advantage, he set up Colm Molloy for a goal from 15 metres out, and once the Kilnadeema-Leitrim player nonchalantly placed the ball into the bottom left corner, it felt like a weight was lifted off the Galway college’s shoulders, and they started to produce some wonderful hurling.

Liam Leen and Ian McGlynn hurled a lot of ball through the middle, Greg Thomas was a powerful physical presence on the edge of the square and the full-back line of Eoin Lawless, Darren Morrissey and Kieran Hanrahan didn’t put a foot wrong, but the main men were Killeen and Molloy, who controlled and mesmerised in their respective spheres.

MTU Cork responded to the concession of the goal with a free from Brian Flynn, but University of Galway picked off the next five points in a row with some direct and precise hurling that was exactly as physical as it needed to be, though never abrasive simply for the sake of it.

Pictured: Loughrea’s Tiernan Killeen, pictured in action against St Thomas’ Evan Duggan, starred for University of Galway in their big Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-final win over MTU of Cork.