Sporting Fingal kept in touch with the Premier Division leaders when goals in each half gave them a narrow  victory over UCD in last night's close encounter at the Belfield Bowl.           

 

The Students had a chance on six minutes when a clever reverse pass from striker Ciaran Kilduff allowed midfielder Robbie Creevy to fire in a drive from 20 yards just narrowly wide of the target.

 

Then Chris Mulhall had a long rane free pushed away Sporting 'keeper Darren Quigley. From the resulting corner taken by Mulhall, central defender Andy Boyle had a header well taken by the alert Quigley.

 

Fingal were in  front on 27 minutes when  Conan Byrne picked up a long ball from Shaun Williams ball in midfield and fired home a shot 20 yards past the despairing dive of 'keeper Ger Barron. Byrne was one of five ex-UCD players in the Fingal panel.

 

But College were level on 39 minutes when Kilduff waltzed round defenders Shaun Maher and John Frost  to calmly plant the ball in the net from close range. It was Kilduff's tenth league goal of the season.

 

Barron was the hero for UCD seconds before the interval when he got down to push away a close range effort from Byrne when it seemed Fingal would again grab the lead.

 

It was that man Byrne again when his angled shot from the right early in the second half was pushed away by Barron with the ball deflecting off an upright.

 

But there was to be no let-up by Liam Buckley's side as they got their noses in front again on 51 minutes when a looping header by defender Kenny Browne found the net after a clever lob into the area by midfielder Ronan Finn.

 

UCD went close to an equaliser when the always dangerous Kilduff had along range effort brilliantly pushed out by 'keeper Darren Quigley after Chris Mulhall had cleverly created the opening on the right. Then Keith Ward was narrowly off target with a dipping free kick just over the bar as College went search of an equaliser.

 

Both teams had late chances when first Kilduff shot just wide and then Fingal's Williams was just off target.

 

UCD: Barron ; Shortall, Boyle, E McMillan, Nangle; Wilson, Creevy (Creevy 68) , O'Conor, Mulhall (Rusk 78); Kilduff, Ward.

 

Sporting Fingal: Quigley; O'Brien, Maher, Browne, Frost; Finn, McFaul (Kirby 45), Williams; Byrne, O'Neill, Cahill.

 

Referee: P Tuite (Dublin)