FINN HARPS avenged their early season mauling by UCD with an organised and aggressive blend of football at Finn Park, Ballybofey. After a lifeless first half hour, goals by Davy Dowling and Noel Melvin on either side of half time appeared to have wrapped up the game for the Donegal club.
The students continued to plug away, however, and were back in the game when Darren O'Brien's 18-yard shot took a deflection off team mate Aidan Lynch, making it 2-1 in the 68th minute.
However, Finn Harps's veteran striker, Jonathan Speak, had his own ideas about preventing a spirited student comeback. Despite failing to find the target in his last seven outings, superb strikes from the Sion Mills man in the 73rd and 75th minutes sealed matters.
Finn Harps substitute Alan Doherty rubbed salt into the students' wounds in the 89th minute when he poked home a loose ball past student goalkeeper Seamus Kelly.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)