UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN have won the prestigious Collingwood Cup for the 47th time.
A goal in the second minute of injury time from Daire O’Connor sealed a 2-1 victory over hosts Queen’s University in this afternoon’s final in Belfast.
O’Connor was afterwards named player of the tournament. The 20-year-old midfielder was also on target in Monday’s quarter-final win against Maynooth University.
Today’s triumph was a sweet one for UCD on the back of the disappointment of last year’s final, in which the 2016 champions were on the wrong side of a 2-1 result against University College Cork, who scored in the fourth minute of injury time.
UCC’s defence of the Collingwood Cup ground to a halt yesterday when they suffered a 4-3 semi-final defeat to Queen’s.
UCD, who overcame Dublin City University in their semi-final yesterday, went in front in the 24th minute of today’s decider thanks to Timmy Molloy.
But Queen’s, the 23-time winners who were aiming to clinch their first title since 1985, were back on level terms a couple of minutes before the break when Ronan Young found the net.
The balance appeared to be tipped in the hosts’ favour on the stroke of half-time when Georgie Kelly, the top goalscorer in the SSE Airtricity League First Division in 2017, was shown a red card for a challenge.
Both sides went in search of a winner in the second half but it didn’t arrive until the clock ticked beyond the 90th minute, with O’Connor beating Queen’s goalkeeper Conor Lally with a superb effort to ensure that the Collingwood Cup returned to Dublin.