UUC PICK UP THEIR 22ND TITLE

UUC

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St Mary’s Belfast

1-9 KERRY’S Sean O’shea bagged eight points as UCC picked up their first Sigerson Cup title since 2014, following a four-point win over St Mary’s Belfast last night.

O’shea delivered a man of the match performance as UCC delivered a strong final quarter to take their 22nd title – and a third for Billy Morgan as manager.

UCC fell 1-2 to 0-4 in arrears after 16 minutes following a goal from Derry’s Shane Mcguigan.

However, Morgan’s men worked hard with O’shea leading the charge.

The Kenmare Shamrocks clubman fired three of UCC’S final four points of the half as they took a 0-9 to 1-3 interval lead, with fellow Kerryman Graham O’sullivan also on target.

O’shea continued his good work early on the restart with his sixth score to open up a four-point lead just 50 seconds after the throw-in.

However, St Mary’s quickly cancelled this out with defender Miceal Rooney popping up to break their scoring deadlock.

St Mary’s looked good in the third quarter and outscored UCC by four points to one in a 10-minute spell to cut the gap to the minimum by the 43rd minute.

Mcguigan, Tyrone’s Ryan Mccusker and Down man Stephen Mcconville all added vital scores.

However, Gavin Mcgilly’s charges were dealt a blow, losing Aaron Boyle to a red card.

Too their credit St Mary’s battled hard - a fine score from Mcguigan levelling the tie in the 48th minute.

But St Mary’s found it hard over the remainder of the hour to breakdown a strong and determined UCC side, and only managed one further score.

M White; M Flood, K Flahive, G O’sullivan (0-2); D O’brien, B Begley, C Kiely; P Lucey (0-1), J Kennedy; P Clifford (0-2), S O’shea (0-8, 5f), C Horgan; C Geaney, K Spillane, E Courtney. Subs: D Shaw for Horgan (HT); J Naughton (0-1) for Courtney (52); E Finnerty for Spillane (52); G Murphy (0-1) for Geaney (52); C Ó hainifin (0-1) for O’brien (59).

M Reid; L Rafferty, C Dillon, M Rooney (0-1); C Byrne, R Mccusker (0-1), A Duffy; J Óg Burns, L Devlin; S Mcconville (0-3, 3f), R Coleman, A Boyle; N Toner, S Mcguigan (1-4, 1f), C Mckinney. Sub: D Mckinless for Byrne (52).