Canning leads rout as UCD are blown away

Fitzgibbon Cup: Limerick IT 2-16, UCD 0-6 Joe Canning showed what a wonderful talent he is when he scored 2-8 as Limerick Institute of Technology crushed the tissue-like challenge of University College Dublin in the Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-final in Limerick yesterday.

The writing was on the wall for the Dublin students from early on. Despite playing with the aid of a strong wind, they found themselves 1-2 to nil down after 10 minutes - with Canning touching home a goal from a Eoin Cadogan cross.

A resolute home defence, in which Michael Walsh and Kilkenny's Jackie Tyrell were outstanding, never gave the UCD forwards a sniff of a goal and, with Canning unerring from frees, the home side turned over 1-8 to 0-5 in front, all but one of the Dublin side's points coming from frees.

Canning struck for his second goal seconds after the resumption when he plucked Austin Murphy's delivery out of the air before rattling the UCD net and it was now very much a case of how much Limerick IT would win by.

With their place in next week's semi-final assured, the LIT forwards were content to pick off the points and six in a row - shared by Canning and Aonghus Callanan - put the home side into an unassailable lead and they ran out easy winners at the finish.

UCD were a huge disappointment. Given the inter-county players they had in their side, they were expected to provide a stern test for the home side, but they failed completely to offer any serious challenge.

They could only manage a solitary point from play over the hour and a lot of reputations were severely tarnished. Seán Cummins, Paul Ormond and Diarmuid Fitzgerald battled very hard to stem the tide, particularly in the second half when LIT had the strong wind to their backs.

LIT: J Skehill; M Walsh, J Tyrell, A Byrne; S McGrath, C O'Mahony, M O'Brien; J Clancy (0-1), K Murphy; E Cadogan (0-2), A Murphy (0-1), I Tannian (0-1); A Callanan (0-3), J Canning (2-8, 0-6 from frees, 0-1 from sideline cut, 0-1 from 65), J McInerney. Subs: D O'Reilly for A Murphy; K Hynes for Cadogan; D Young for K Murphy; P Ryan for Clancy; D Morrissey for O'Brien.

UCD: D Fogarty; D Prendergast, S Cummins, P Ormond; D Fitzgerald, T Brady, C Billings; D Hayes, B Barry; E O'Gorman, S Nolan (0-5, four frees, one 65), C Lafferty; PJ Nolan, J McCarthy, B Murphy (0-1). Subs: T Fitzgerald for Lafferty; C King for O'Gorman; B Buckley for Billings.

Referee: S Roche (Tipperary).