All of the Irish Universities Football Union (IUFU) Cup competitions have taken place during the past few months with the winners spread throughout the country among six different universities.
The Colleges Football Association of Ireland (CFAI) were also able to complete their programme of Cup Finals in early March in the Athlone Town Stadium and the following week, the finals of six of the seven divisions of the Colleges and Universities Football League (CUFL) were successfully staged again at the same venue.
The only outstanding league title yet to be decided is the Women’s Division One where DCU were due to face University of Limerick, but that had to be postponed after the close down was announced on the day of the game.
The final stages of the Women’s Kelly, Lydon and O’Regan Cups which were due to be held on March 24 and 25 at the Waterford IT Arena were postponed, as were the finals of the CUFL Men’s and Women’s National Futsal Cups at the same venue.
The league titles already decided were well spread among six different third level institutions with the all-island nature of the CUFL clearly emphasised by South West College Enniskillen taking the Division Three crown for the first time ever courtesy of an Alex Holder second-half goal against the Maynooth University ‘C’ side.
The Women’s Premier Division also went to Northern Ireland for the first time with Ulster University coming from behind to defeat Maynooth University 3-2 helped by two goals from full back Naomi Dornan in a thrilling decider.
UCD picked up their eighth Premier title in the 13 years of the competition with a narrow 2-1 victory over IT Sligo. The north-west side were only promoted to the top flight as Division One champions two season’s ago.
Yoyo Mahdy was the Belfield side’s hero grabbing both goals but they needed goalkeeper Lorcan Healy to be at his best after defender Harvey O’Brien’s unfortunate own goal levelled matter at 1-1 and then Sligo mounted a strong late challenge in a bid to get back on terms for a second time.
It was tough on the Sligo side who had suffered defeat to IT Carlow in the CFAI Perpetual Cup the previous week.
Long-serving manager Pat Scully finally got to lead TU Dublin-Tallaght back to the top flight after several years of heartbreak battling for promotion by claiming the Division One title.
Ola Lawal’s early first half goal looked to have Tallaght on their way to the title but in the end it took a penalty shoot out victory to see the South Dublin side over the line against a dogged NUI Galway after a late Ruairi Casserly equaliser had kept the westerners in the hunt.
National College of Ireland striker Josh Hogan hit a hattrick to see off Galway Technical Institute in the Division Two decider while UCC ‘D’ proved too strong for Bray Institute in the Division Four final winning 7-0.
The CFAI’s top trophy the Perpetual Cup went to IT Carlow for an eight time in ten years with a comprehensive 4-1 win over IT Sligo.
Ronan Gallagher’s neat headed had given Sligo an early lead but Carlow came back strongly and goals from Mark Birrane, Shane Barnes, Danny Doyle and Dean Kelly gave them another cup win as IT Sligo finished the game with seven players.
The clash of the two Dublin sides in the Perpetual Shield final saw the TU Dublin-Blanchardstown ‘B’ side spring a surprise by comfortably getting the better of close rivals TU Dublin-Tallaght 4-1 with goals from Kiefer Trappe (2), Niall Gleeson and Karl Canning.
History was made in the Challenge Cup final with IT Tralee claiming a first ever trophy in Colleges and Universities football with a Matthew Shortt-Doyle early second half goal that proved just about enough to edge past the IT Carlow ‘C’ side.
Darragh O’Connor hit a brilliant hat-trick and a Luke Murphy goal helped the TU Dublin-City Campus ‘C’ side captured their first ever Bob Eustace Cup with clear cut 4-0 defeat of IADT Dun Laoghaire. While Cork IT ‘D’ were comprehensive winners of the Eustace Shield with a resounding 5-0 defeat of GMIT Mayo.
Jack O’Connor’s winning spot kick in the penalty shoot out gave DCU an historic first ever Collingwood Cup success in the 100th final of the IUFU blue ribband competition played at Dalymount Park the venue for the first final in 1914.
Ulster University had proved dogged opponents in the decider and after both sides who feeling the effects of playing their third cup tie in as many days failed to hit the target the game ended scoreless even after 20-minutes of extra-time.
The Farquhar Cup went to the hosts Trinity College Dublin with another penalty shoot out needed to decide the outcome in the final against Maynooth University that ended 3-3.
UCD picked up their 20th IUFU Harding Cup in the 30-year history of the competition for Freshers and their first since 2016 with a 3-0 defeat of Maynooth University at Queens University Belfast.
Two well taken set-piece first-half goals from central defenders Harvey O’Brien and Tom O’Connor with Colm Whelan adding the third saw the Belfield home.
UCC Freshers proved too strong for a weary University of Limerick and they comfortably took the Spillane Cup for defeated Harding quarter finalists on a 5-0 scoreline.
The IUFU Cup competitions were completed earlier in March when the hosts Maynooth University defeated UCC to claim the Crowley Cup.
The sides finished at 1-1 after extra-time and the home side came out on top 8-7 in the penalty shoot out. Patrick O’Callaghan put UCC in front before Lord Afrika eventually levelled the tie.
Finally Royal College of Surgeons won the Duggan Cup, their first IUFU trophy since their only other Duggan Cup success in 2008 with a 3-0 win over DCU.
Hopefully football will resume soon but the decisions on completing the outstanding competitions can wait until we all get through this unprecedented period.
ROLL OF HONOUR 2019/20
CUFL
Men’s Premier Division: UCD
Men’s Division One: TU Dublin-Tallaght
Men’s Division Two: National College of Ireland
Men’s Division Three: South West College-Enniskillen
Men’s Division Four: UCC ‘D’
Women’s Premier Division: Ulster University
Women’s Division One: DCU or University of Limerick
CFAI
Perpetual Cup: IT Carlow
Perpetual Shield: TU Dublin-Blanchardstown ‘B’
Challenge Cup: IT Tralee
Eustace Cup: TU Dublin-City Campus ‘C’
Eustace Shield: Cork IT ‘D’
IUFU
Collingwood Cup: DCU
Farquhar Cup: Trinity College Dublin
Crowley Cup: Maynooth University
Duggan Cup: Royal College of Surgeons
Harding Cup: UCD
Spillane Cup: UCC