By Gerard Mulreaney (@gerardmulreaney)
UCD kicked off their First Division campaign with a come from behind victory over Shelbourne at the Belfield Bowl on Friday night. The students were missing many first-team regulars due to players still involved in Universities competitions, so the win was even more impressive against a side expected to challenge for a playoff place come the end of the season.
Shelbourne led at half-time after a James English close-range header just before the half hour mark.
However, two goals in a fifteen minute spell had the students in front, a lead they never relinquished. Sloggett equalised after getting on the end of a rebound from goalkeeper Dean Delaney. Timmy Molloy had a couple of chances to score but Delaney and the post denied him momentarily before he eventually scored what turned out to be the winner.
Sloggett spoke to us about the game, “It was great to get the victory on Friday night and kickstart the campaign with three points.”
He went on to explain the students build-up to the season, “It’s always a strange pre-season in UCD with it being comprised mostly of college football. Bray were the only League of Ireland team we played in pre-season and sometimes that can leave you wondering where you stand when the season starts. But the college games are competitive fixtures with silverware at stake and in terms of mental preparation for competitive games it puts you in good stead. I think that stood to us in the game against Shelbourne, and we showed that competitive character to turn the game on its head after going behind.”
On his goal Sloggett said, “As for my goal, it was a tap in. Liam done well to get himself in a good position and trouble the keeper, and I was just glad to be there to turn it in. It was an important goal for us though, we were on top for most of the first half and felt hard done by to be behind at half time, so to come back out and score so early in the second half settled us and gave us the confidence to go on and win the game.”
Sloggett was delighted to grab the win on the opening night as he knows that it will an extremely tight Division this season, “With the standard of the league rising with the additional two teams coming down, and every game looking likely to be tightly contested, it’s great to start it off with three points on the board, and hopefully we can build on that next week against Wexford.”
Shelbourne manager Owen Heary, whilst obviously disappointed, knew his side were second-best on the night. Heary said, “We took the lead, probably against the run of play if I'm being honest. UCD had a lot of the ball, which we expected. Unfortunately we just came off on the wrong side of the result. UCD played very well, and the better team won."
Comments
Post a Comment