O'Byrne Cup: Wicklow pipped by 13-man DCU
January 09, 2012
Wicklow's Billy Cullen and Eoghan O'Gara of DCU during the O'Byrne Cup game at Baltinglass
Wicklow 1-14
Harry Murphy's hopes of making a winning start to his reign as Wicklow manager were dashed by a Dean Rock-inspired DCU in Baltinglass.
The 2010 Dublin All-Ireland U21 winner and son of Dubs legend Barney top-scored with 0-9 (0-6 from frees) as the students made light of the absence of eight players through injury and the dismissals of Anthony McFadden and Jonathan Cooper.
Wicklow fell five points in arrears inside the opening 12 minutes when Rock, David Kelly, Jack Brady and Cooper all raised white flags. The students had stretched their lead to 0-9 to 0-3 after 20 minutes, but with Tony Hannon and Seanie Furlong to the fore, the home side battled back to lead by 1-7 to 0-9 by the 31st minute.
However, quick points from Gary Sweeney, Rock and Eoghan O'Gara handed the students a 0-13 to 1-7 interval lead and they were never headed thereafter, despite finishing the game with just 13 players.
DCU - R Hennelly, L Bree, P McMahon, E Culligan, C Begley, J McCarthy, J Cooper (0-3), F O'Shea, M McElhinney, G Sweeney (0-1), D Rock (0-9), A McFadden, J Brady (0-3), E O'Gara (0-1), D Kelly (0-1). Subs: M Boyle for R Hennelly, N Collins for P McMahon, J McEnaney for F O'Shea.
Wicklow - J Flynn; A Byrne, J Bolger, C Rossiter; P Byrne, R Finn, N Gaffney; J Stafford, A Merriman (0-1); N Mernagh (0-2), A O'Malley (0-1), D O'Sullivan, J Kelly (1-2), S Furlong (0-5), T Hannon (0-2). Subs: D Healy for P Byrne, P Burke for O'Sullivan, B Cullen (0-1) for A Byrne, H Mangan for Hannon, P Cronin for Kelly.
Ref - F Barry (Kildare). Tweet
