UCD have parted company with manager Collie O’Neill just three days after they suffered a 10-1 league defeat at the hands of Bohemians in Dalymount Park.

The team, which was promoted from the first division last season, are six points adrift at the foot of the Premier Division and while the Students have a game in hand on Finn Harps, they face a battle to stay up over the remaining weeks of the season.

O’Neill was appointed in 2015 and had previously done extremely well with what is always a young side but the loss of key players both in the close season and, more recently, in the summer window, had left him under pressure and he appears to have paid the price for having to field a young and inexperienced side in the top flight.