CUFL Premier Division - Quarter Finals

Teams: Waterford IT 0 vs Letterkenny IT 3

LYIT Scorers: AJ Lehane OG, Oisin McMenamin, Luke O'Farrell

Report Matt Keane

WIT bowed out of the Colleges and Universities League at the quarter final stage at the RSC on Wednesday last in disappointing fashion. Having topped their group in the qualifying stages by playing good attacking football, the Waterford side had high hopes of going all the way in the competition, but costly mistakes and a large number of chances which were not taken, including a penalty miss proved to be their downfall. Having said that the Letterkenny outfit were the better team on the day and they fully deserved their passage into the last four. The game got off to the worst possible start for WIT when they fell behind to an OG after only four minutes of play. Tommy Bonner played a long ball forward from just inside the half way line. The WIT central defender A.J Lehane attempted to play the ball back to his goalkeeper Kevin Burns while under pressure from Oisin McGonagle but all he succeeded in doing was to lob the ball over the head of the netminder from the edge of the penalty area.Four minutes later WIT were awarded a glorious opportunity to get back on level terms when Tommy Bonner was adjudged to have pushed Dylan Mernagh in the back and referee Tony Walsh pointed to the penalty spot following a free kick taken from the left by Cormac O'Driscoll. Darragh Walshe, who recently put pen to paper to sign a contract with Waterford United took the spot kick but his weak effort from 12 yards was easily saved by the Letterkenny goalkeeper Ciaran Gallagher. Darragh Walshe had a chance to atone for his penalty miss on 24 minutes when right full back Craig McCabe played the ball over the Letterkenny defence but this time the tall striker lobbed the ball wide with Ciaran Gallagher out of position. WIT rode their luck on 31 and 33 minutes when they failed to deal with two corners kicks but both Oisin Grant and Davitt  Walsh shot high over the crossbar when really they should have done better. WIT should have equalised on 40 minutes when John Frost picked out Craig McGuire with a well flighted free kick from the left but the usually sharp McGuire headed wide from a great position. The second Letterkenny goal one minute later  was down to a dreadful mistake by the WIT goalkeeper Kevin Burns who has signed a contract with newly promoted Cork City. Oisin Grant played the ball forward from 40 yards and there appeared to be very little danger as Burns came out to meet the ball but he hesitated and that gave Oisin McGonagle the easy task by lobbing the ball over the head of the stranded WIT custodian. Just before the half time break another John Frost free kick caused some difficulty to the Letterkenny defenders but Sam Johnson was unable to take full advantage and he headed wide with only Ciaran  Gallagher to beat. The game was put totally out of reach of WIT three minutes into the second half.Paul McVeigh sent over a corner kick from the left and Luke O'Farrell was given acres of space and he headed powerfully past the helpless Kevin Burns from close range. The remainder of the game petered out without any real moments of magic because the impressive Letterkenny team simply knocked the ball around the park with a great deal of ease and WIT had no answer to their superiority.

WIT. Kevin Burns, Craig McCabe, John Frost, Dylan Mernagh, A.J Lehane, Cormac O'Driscoll, Sam Johnson, Ian Crowley, Craig McGuire, Darragh Walshe, Aaron Gailbert.

Subs. Brian Nolan for O'Driscoll (H-T) Shane Morrissey for Johnson (57 mins) Stephen Moriarty for Gailbert ( 68 mins) Jack Walsh for McCabe (81 mins)

Letterkenny IT. Ciaran Gallagher, Paul McVeigh, Barry McNamee, Mark Harkin, Josh Mailey, Oisin Grant, Luke O'Farrell, Tommy Bonner, Oisin McGonagle, Davitt Walsh, Tony McNamee.

Subs. Johnny Logue for O'Farrell (71 mins) Dylan Ramsey for McGonagle (71 mins)

Referee Tony Walsh (Waterford)