The Ten Greatest UCD Games of All Time

•  1. UCD 2-1 Shamrock Rovers, 1983/1984 FAI Cup
•  2. UCD 0-1(agg) Everton, 1984/1985 Cup Winners’ Cup
•  3. UCD 3-3(agg, aet) Athlone, 2000/2001 League promotion/relegation play-off
•  4. UCD 3-0 Shamrock Rovers, 1999/2000 League
•  5. UCD 5-1 Shelbourne, 1979/1980 League
•  6. UCD 3-3(agg) Velbazhd Kyustendil, 2000 Intertoto Cup
•  7. Drogheda United 0-5 UCD, 1999/2000 League
•  8. UCD 2-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic, 1979/1980 LSC Final
•  9. Shelbourne 0-1 UCD, 2001/2002 League
• 10. Bohemians 3-3 UCD, 1999/2000 FAI Cup

1

An obvious choice for the greatest UCD game of all time, this was one of the biggest cup final upsets in the history of the competition and one of the most dramatic finishes. Rovers had already easily won the league and were going for their first double since 1964, had the league’s top scorer in Alan Campbell and had beaten UCD 2-0 in Belfield two weeks earlier. Everything pointed towards an easy Rovers win but UCD had been at their best in knockout competition all season, reaching the finals of both the Shield and Leinster Senior Cup.

The game took place in Dalymount Park in front of a crowd of 7,000 on a gloriously sunny day. Unfortunately the football didn’t live up to the surroundings and a dull game ended scoreless. The Rovers midfield struggled to impose themselves on the game and Martin Moran at left back contained the speedy Neville Steedman who expected to pose Rovers’ main threat. On 14 minutes Noel King played a one-two with Mick Neville and put Liam Buckley through but his shot was well saved and Martin Moran was able to clear from a crowded goalmouth. With only 15 minutes to go Alan Campbell latched on to a Pat Byrne through ball and held off Dunning and O’Doherty in the College defence but O’Neill blocked with his leg. Early in the second half, Robbie Gaffney on the right was responsible for UCD’s best spell and Reynolds had two half chances but couldn’t convert either and the tie went to a replay five days later in Tolka Park.

The replay went along similar lines to the original game with the UCD midfield of Dignam and Cullen closing down Noel King and Pat Byrne well; the entertainment was of a much higher standard however. Rovers started more brightly with O’Neill making a good early save from Buckley and King missing a difficult chance soon after. The tie finally saw a goal after 40 minutes as Martin Moran intercepted a Noel King pass and sent Joe Hanrahan clear on the left. He went on a 40 yard run and slid the ball between the outrushing Byrne and the right hand post to put UCD 1-0 up. A few minutes later, Ken O’Doherty had a chance to put the result beyond doubt after John Cullen was fouled by King in the box but his powerful penalty was saved by Jody Byrne. With just over half an hour to go, O’Neill made a diving save at the feet of Pat Byrne and was down injured for five minutes and only a minute later, a Steedman cross caused confusion in the UCD defence and Dunning fouled Liam Buckley. McDonagh made no mistake with the resulting penalty, squeezing the ball in off the post.

Because of the injury to O’Neill, there were six minutes of injury time played and right at the end of added time, with 20 minutes of extra time looming, Dignam floated a long free kick into the box where six players challenged for it. Ken O’Doherty rose highest to head the ball past Byrne in the Rovers goal to secure the most important win in UCD’s history and only their second ever senior win over Rovers. Alan O’Neill was again named Man of the Match as UCD managed to keep Rovers scoreless from play for another 90 minutes.

UCD: O’Neill, Lawlor, Dunning, O’Doherty, Moran, Gaffney, Dignam, Cullen, Devlin, Hanrahan, Murphy (Reynolds).

Rovers: J. Byrne, Whelan, Keely, McDonagh, Coady, P. Byrne, King, Neville (Eviston), Steedman, Buckley, Campbell.

2

After winning the FAI Cup the previous summer, UCD found themselves in the Cup Winners’ Cup in the autumn of 1984. Any hopes for an easy introduction to European football were out the window when Everton came out of the hat as first round opponents. At the time, Everton were one of the top clubs in England, a fact demonstrated by the fact that their team was worth £3m and included ’keeper Neville Southall and Irish international Kevin Sheedy. The European season had started well for the League of Ireland as Bohs had beaten Rangers the night before but little was expected of UCD against one of the top clubs in Europe.

In front of 10,000 in Tolka Park, UCD spent most of the first leg on the back foot against the pace of the Everton attack but the solid back four gave nothing away with a Sheedy shot over the bar the only real chance in the first 40 minutes. Coming up to half time, Everton had two excellent chances to take the lead. A Sheedy free kick was headed just over by Derek Mountfield on 44 minutes and a minute later an excellent save from Alan O’Neill denied Graeme Sharp from a header laid on by Sheedy again.

The second half proved fairly uneventful with Mountfield Everton’s biggest threat and Joe Hanrahan playing on his own in the UCD attack had very little opportunity to trouble the Everton defence. At the other end Alan O’Neill had little to do in the UCD goal either. Five minutes from the end, Sharp had the ball in the UCD net but the goal was disallowed for a foul on Martin Moran and UCD held on for a famous draw.

The second leg in Goodison Park started along the same lines but 10 minutes in, the UCD defence made its first mistake of the tie. An Adrian Heath pass to Graeme Sharp sprung the offside trap and Sharp scored from close range. The 16,277 crowd were expecting Everton to cut loose and win the game easily from here but remarkably despite Gary Stevens being dangerous on the right and a good save being required from Rathcliffe, UCD weren’t overrun. In the last few minutes UCD pushed forward knowing that a goal would put them through on away goals and Paul Caffrey had a shot only millimetres over the bar with only minutes to go. At the end of the match the UCD team and few hundred supporters were given a standing ovation by the home crowd.

UCD: O’Neill, Lawlor, O’Doherty, Dunning, Moran, Gaffney, Dignam, Cullen, Roche, Murphy, Hanrahan

Everton: Southall, Stevens, Bailey, Rathcliffe, Mountfield, Steven, Reid, Bracewell, Sheedy, Heath, Sharp.

3

UCD win 4-2 on penalties

Nine days before the first leg of the play-off, UCD went to Galway needing a win to avoid automatic relegation form the premier division. This was narrowly achieved with a 2-1 win to relegate Finn Harps. The tension at that game was to prove nothing compared to that at the play-off games. We had to wait a week to find out who our opponents were to be. It turned out to be the team who led the first division for most of the season (by 11 points at one stage), Athlone.

UCD were unlucky to lose the first leg 2-1 courtesy of two goals from former Student Andy Myler. The first was a penalty after Tony McDonnell fouled Stuart Connolly. He made up for that a few minutes later to equalise after an Alan Mahon free kick. Near the end of the second half, UCD were dealt a bitter blow as Clive Delaney was sent off for fouling Stuart Connolly. Connolly continued his tormenting of the UCD defence four minutes into injury time as he sent in the corner that set up Myler for the last minute winner.

Before the second leg, UCD manager Martin Moran was quoted as saying, "We need an early goal and then another one." It proved to be a prescient comment as in the first minute, with the crowd still streaming in, Derek Swan headed home from a Clive Delaney free kick to score his fourth goal in six games. Despite being sent off in the first leg, Delaney was able to play in the second leg because the league disciplinary committee had no meeting scheduled until after the game! The Students could have extended their lead after half an hour as Mick O’Donnell fired over the bar when well placed. Five minutes into the second half, it looked as if the tie was really going UCD’s way as Rob McAuley made it 2-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate with another header from a set piece, this time a John Martin corner.

With 20 minutes to go, Athlone levelled the tie with a free kick from Greg Costello after a period of pressure with Barry Ryan called upon to make two excellent saves. The game then trundled into extra time as the tension levels grew and grew. With only eight minutes left, the referee awarded a penalty after Greg Costello handled in the area. Incredibly, Swan missed and the game went to penalties.

Robert McAuley, Derek Swan, Alan Mahon and Robbie Martin all scored for UCD as Barry Ryan was the hero, saving penalties from Greg Costello and Alan McNevin to give UCD a 4-2 victory on penalties after an incredible 210 minutes of action.

UCD: Barry Ryan, Alan Mahon, Clive Delaney, Rob McAuley, Mick O’Donnell, John Martin (Robbie Martin), Ciarán Kavanagh (Paul O’Meara), Tony McDonnell, Ciaran Martyn, Eoin Bennis (Brian Mooney), Derek Swan

Athlone Town: Connaughton, Fitzell, Frawley, McCormack, O’Brien (Brazil), Kelly (Harte), Costello, Connolly, Mullan (Carberry), Myler, McNevin.

4

UCD’s first match after the death of the Doc, Tony O’Neill, who’d held a wide range of jobs in football from manager of UCD FC to being a member of the Euro 2000 organising committee, was against our biggest rivals, Shamrock Rovers, who were top of the table when this match rolled around. The burial had taken place on the previous Tuesday, and a huge number of former players who’d been influenced by the Doc since UCD joined the league 20 years previously were in attendance at the match - in some cases, players had come home from England, Europe, Canada and the US to make it one of the biggest crowds ever in Belfield Park.

After a hugely emotional minute’s silence, UCD, managed on the day by Theo Dunne, tore into the Hoops, hitting the bar in the early stages, although surviving a similar incident at the other end. However, a weakened UCD side, missing, among other, Clive Delaney and Ciarán Martyn, broke the deadlock on 24 minutes when Peter Hanrahan headed home a cross from Brian Mooney. That Hanrahan should score the opener was perhaps fitting as he was the one link on the night with the glory days of the mid-80s, when we won the Cup and which finished fourth in the league, a feat which was to be equalled at the end of this season.

However, Eóin Bennis was to prove the real thorn in Rovers’ side - the winger had an inspirational night up front, and put the College 2-0 up shortly before the break after being played through by Alan Mahon. And the scoreboard was indeed a fair reflection of UCD’s dominance as Rovers were second-best in every area of the park.

In the second half, Mick O’Byrne and Ciarán Kavanagh, among others, had chances to increase the lead before Bennis found the net again with 20 minutes to go - this time after being put through by Brian Mooney.

In the end, this was probably as convincing a win as UCD have ever enjoyed, and to get it at the expense of our rivals made it all the sweeter.

UCD: Barry Ryan; Éamon McLoughlin, Aidan Lynch, Tony McDonnell, Alan Mahon, Rob McAuley (Rob Dunne), Ciarán Kavanagh, Peter Hanrahan, Brian Mooney (Ken Kilmurray), Eóin Bennis (Glen Fitzpatrick), Mick O'Byrne

Shamrock Rovers: Horgan; Britton, Jackson, Brazil (Deans), Dunne, Robinson, Colwell (Byrne), Tracey, Woods, Cousins, Purdy (Holt)

5

In our first season in the league, UCD had only scored five goals in our first nine games. That was to change in spectacular fashion as UCD completely overwhelmed a Shelbourne side that was at the bottom of the table at the time.

The star of the match for UCD was right winger David Cassidy and a lot of the credit for the performance must go to him. Not only did he score four of the five goals, he caused major problems for the Shelbourne defence all night. The goal avalanche began in the 16th minute with a fine goal for Cassidy. UCD didn’t sit on the early lead; rather they went further ahead with Cassidy scoring another two goals in the next ten minutes to complete an amazing hat trick in the first half hour. That wasn’t the end of UCD’s goals in the first half as future manager, Martin Moran took advantage of UCD’s total dominance to make it 4-0 five minutes before half time.

Understandably, the students let the pace of the game drop in the second half and Shelbourne put on a lot of pressure and threatened to close the gap. In the space of seven minutes of relentless pressure, Shels had two shots hit woodwork and Fox and Nugent had attempts cleared off the line.

Had they managed to score some of these chances, Shelbourne could have got themselves right back into the game. They did eventually reduce arrears in the 67th minute when Paul O’Neill, who shone for the visitors throughout, volleyed in a loose ball after goalkeeper Ian McCabe had blocked a Cleary shot. Cassidy was not to be upstaged however and capped off a fantastic game by scoring his fourth goal of the game late on to give UCD a memorable victory and still one of our biggest wins in the league.

UCD: McCabe, Conville, Fox, Deeney, McDonnell, McGovern, Cassidy, Goff, Deary, Dignam, Moran.

Shelbourne: Byrne, Moode, Ryan, Boyle, O’Neill, Layt, McMahon, Donnelly, Delamere, Boogle (Nugent), Cleary.

6

In 2000, UCD were back in Europe after a 16-year gap and had drawn Velbazhd Kyustendil of Bulgaria. The Bulgarian league had only finished a couple of weeks previously, and in Mihail Mihailov they had the top scorer in the league, having notched 20 goals the previous season. Nobody gave us much chance, but we were to surprise all the pundits and nearly shock Kyustendil.

The first leg was in Belfield in scorching summer heat and, though that should have suited the Bulgarians more, it was UCD who took the lead first. Sloppy defending allowed a Rob Dunne cross to reach Mick O’Byrne, and his shot from 25 yards was tipped around the post. But from the resulting Johnny Martin corner, Rob McAuley rose to head our first ever European goal.

The lead lasted four minutes - Velko Hristov went on a run down the wing and across the by-line, past Rob Dunne and Clive Delaney, before teeing up Ivan Stoickov to place his shot into the top corner. That was the sign for the Bulgarians to dominate the game for the next while - Mihailov nearly scored after dummying Delaney brilliantly, only for Ryan to make an equally brilliant save, but five minutes before half-time, Mihailov got his goal after Stoichkov’s back-heel put him in behind the defence and his finish was clinical.

UCD came back into it in the second half and equalised with the goal of the game on the hour - an eight-man passing move saw Rob McAuley play a 1-2 with Ciarán Kavanagh and race through the defence to blast home from 12 yards. Parity lasted five minutes, when Alan Mahon fouled Stoyanov and Barry Ryan just couldn’t keep out Boyko Velichkov’s penalty. But on 76 minutes, McAuley’s free-kick came back off the wall for Kavanagh to float in a cross which found Eóin Bennis unmarked six yards out to take the ball down on his chest and square for Ciarán Martyn, who finished to an empty net with his knee. And we could have won it late on when first Ken Kilmurray’s 25-yard drive was batted away by Petkov and Mick O’Byrne just couldn’t finish a Rob Dunne cross.

In Bulgaria the next week, heat was again the order of the day as Barry Ryan kept us in the match with a string of brilliant saves. We came out more in the second half and Ciarán Martyn and, in injury time, Mick O’Byrne both could have won the game for us, but it was Kyustendil who advanced to a Second Round tie with Sigma Olomouc of the Czech Republic - they won 2-0 at home but lost the second leg 8-0.

(first leg line-outs)

UCD: Barry Ryan; Éamon McLoughlin, Clive Delaney, Rob McAuley, Alan Mahon; Rob Dunne, John Martin (James Timmons), Ciarán Kavanagh, Mick O'Donnell (Ciarán Martyn); Mick O'Byrne, Eóin Bennis (Ken Kilmurray)

Velbazhd Kyustendil: Petkov; Kotev, Goshev, Kolev; Pavlov (R Petrov), A. Stoyanov, Litera (Velichkov), G Petrov, Hristev; Stoychev, Mikhailov (Metouchev)

7

The 1999/2000 season was one of our most memorable ever. After starting off on a decidedly low note when manager/club manager/FAI representative/anything else for which he found time, Tony O’Neill, passed away, the season progressed through six clean sheets in a row, two consecutive weekends where we were the only team to win a match and finally a four game winning streak, including only our second ever senior win in Dalymount, which saw us two points off Europe going into our last match. Our lower goal difference meant that we needed a 5-0 win over Drogheda and that we had to hope that struggling Galway could hold Pat’s. If we won 5-1 and Pat’s drew 1-1, our records over the season would have been identical!

The first half was nothing special - Drogheda had already been relegated and were content to play out their season. Ciarán Kavanagh gave us the lead on the half-hour, running onto a through ball and slotting home. Kavanagh was also involved what was probably the turning moment of the match, when he collided with the Drogheda keeper, who had to be stretchered off. Drogheda had already lost defender Gerry Boyle through injury, and UCD took full advantage.

On the stroke of half-time, a low cross found Kilmurray unmarked, six yards out and with the keeper nowhere. His shot trickled in off a post. And a minute after half-time, the game was over as a contest when Robbie Dunne made it 3-0.

But the excitement wasn’t over yet. With ten minutes left, word filtered through that Pat’s and Galway were still scoreless. The UCD players lifted their game, and with five minutes to go, Mick O’Byrne struck a shot from the edge of the area which seemed to pass through the Drogheda keeper’s hands. But now, we only needed one more goal. Drogheda attacked from tip, but the ball ended up with Barry Ryan. He threw the ball out to Rob Dunne, who made another surging run down the wing before sending a low cross across the six yard box, where Mick O’Donnell was on hand to slide home the all-important fifth goal.

And then, just as we were basking in the glory of a remarkable last-day record senior win - sealing first European qualification in 16 years by one goal, Galway went and scored an injury-time winner which could have saved us so much worrying! Always the way!

Drogheda: G. Byrne (O’Neill); Shevlin (McCann), Boyle (Mannion), Foley, Maher; McDonald, McNulty, C. Murphy, Butler; A. Murphy, Impey. Subs not used: M. Byrne, Cronin.

UCD: Ryan; McLoughlin, Mahon, McAuley, Delaney (McDonnell); Kavanagh, Dunne, Martyn (McNally), O’Donnell; O’Byrne, Kilmurray (Fitzpatrick) Subs not used: Graham O’Keeffe, James Timmons.

8

Just to show that not all our greatest games took place in recent years we’ve gone back to St. Stephen’s Day 1980 when the boys in blue won the Leinster Senior Cup for the first time in their history, and this was the first trophy the club won after attaining senior status the previous year. The Irish Times described it as “one of the more romantic stories from the holiday programme.” as UCD held off a late fightback to win. 

A blunder from the Saints’ Tommy Hynes helped UCD open the scoring on thirteen minutes. His miscued pass was intercepted by Ralston Dunlop who threaded through a pass to David Cowhey and the flamboyant winger made no mistake from 12 yards out. UCD legend Martin Moran added the second early in the second half. Wright lost possession to McGovern in midfield and he helped set up Norman, his shot was blocked but the man who would go on to manage les bleus fired home the rebound into an empty net to make it 2-0. 

From here on in it was all Pats as they tried to force there way back into the game but much like today, their lack of creativity proved their undoing as they failed to test the UCD defence for most of this period. Even the great Jackie Jameson struggled as his best chance was a limp shot on the 71st minute that McCabe easily gathered. Pats finally scored in the 86th when Mahon headed home. Pats could have been awarded a penalty shortly after when Fox brought down Barron in the box but no foul was given and the Inchicore side finished with only ten men on the pitch when Barry Murphy was giving his marching orders. Murphy had some harsh words with the referee after the ref ruled out what Murphy saw as a legitimate equaliser in the last minute. UCD wouldn’t be denied however and held on to pull off a dramatic victory.

UCD: McCabe, O’Beirne, Moran, Doyle, Fox, Barling, McGovern, Norman, Dunlop, Cassidy, Cowhey. 

St. Pats: Grace, Higgins, Murphy, Wright, Munnelly, O’Connor (O’Donnell 76), Malone, Hynes (Barron 76), Mahon, Carthy, Jameson.

9

Things didn’t look good for us going into this match. We’d survived the relegation play-off the previous May on penalties and now, with the Premier Division reducing to 10 teams, we were desperate to improve on a poor start which had seen us win two games of our first nine - a start which saw us out of the relegation zone only by virtue of St. Pat’s having had nine points deducted. We’d picked up only one point from three Dublin derbies so far - a tame 0-0 draw with Pat’s at Belfield - and hadn’t beaten Shels in our previous 12 attempts. But from this, Paul Doolin managed to inspire his side to victory over the eventual league champions, who didn’t even manage to register a goal against UCD in two games in Tolka over the season.

The team line-up sprung one surprise - midfielder James Timmons was in for his first start since a Leinster Senior Cup the previous season. But it was to prove an inspirational decision as he excelled in a three-man midfield to lead UCD to a famous victory, which inspired a tremendous season in which we ended up with the second-best away record in the league.

There were 17 minutes on the clock before our first attack of note - Gareth Downey had to be down sharpish to turn away a Robbie Martin drive from the edge of the area. Shels cleared the corner, but only at the expense of another, and from this corner, Alan McNally powered home a header into the top corner.

Shels responded strongly, as you would expect, but Timmons and McNally were superb in the mid, winning tackle after tackle and getting them to UCD tops. Paul Doolin was instrumental in setting up counter-attacks, and Shels struggled with the pace of Robbie Martin up front. UCD’s best chance came in the second half, when a poor Gareth Downey goal-kick was returned with interest by James Timmons, but he was inches wide from 30 yards. Shels’ best chance came as the lashing rain and lightning started - Barry Ryan came to the edge of the area to collect a through ball, slipped in the conditions, but recovered to pluck the ball of the Shels forward’s foot. He was probably enjoying himself, but those in the stand weren’t overly impressed!

We held on through four minutes of injury-time, stifling Shels’ attacks and launching pin-point, blistering counter-attacks, we were well worth our first ever away win against Shels in the league at the final whistle.

Shelbourne: Downey; Heary, Minnock, McCarthy, Gannon; Hutton, Fenlon, Dempsey (B Byrne), D Byrne (Crawford); Geoghegan (Fitzpatrick), R Baker

UCD: Barry Ryan; Alan Mahon, Rob McAuley, Clive Delaney, Tony McDonnell, Darragh Ryan; James Timmons, Paul Doolin (Eóin Keating), Alan McNally; Robbie Martin, Ciarán Martyn

10

Our 1999/2000 Cup campaign began bizarrely and ended controversially, but in between saw one of our best ever Cup games as we managed to take the lead three times in Dalymount yet still not win.

In the Second Round, we were drawn away to Monaghan. With Barry Ryan and reserve keeper John Browne both doubtful, Ken Kilmurray was lined up to play in goals. The striker and GAA player wasn’t needed as Barry Ryan recovered in time to play in a 4-0 win.

Dalymount wouldn’t be quite as easy - we’d only won once there ever, and out only Cup matchagainst Bohs had seen defeat in 1982 - one Paul Doolin scored the winner.

The game here was to be Peter Hanrahan’s last for UCD as, in the 18th minute, he was injured in a challenge with Avery John which prematurely ended his career. By this stage, however, it was already 1-1 as first Brian Mooney picked up a pass from Johnny Martin to advance and drill past Michael Dempsey from 25 yards only for former Athlone Town and Manchester City forward Ray Kelly to volley home Pascal Vaudequin’s cross five minutes later.

Although we were on the back foot for a while after that, we almost equalised shortly before half-time when Robbie Brunton, under no pressure, played the ball back to his keeper, unaware that Dempsey had come to the edge of his area. Fortunately for Brunton, the ball trickled inches wide of the post, but Bohs’ repreive was short-lived as Brian Mooney hit the post from the corner and Mick O’Byrne powered home the rebound. But Bohs were level by half-time when another Pascal Vaudequin cross was thumped home, by Eóin Mullen this time.

Amazingly, we were back in front seven minutes after the restart. Michael Dempsey tipped a Clive Delaney header onto the bar, and Mick O’Byrne was on hand to force the ball home from a matter of inches.

Bohs manager Roddy Collins responded by making three subs and they were level within 10 minutes - Robbie Brunton robbed Mooney, ran 40 yards and slotted home past Barry Ryan.

There were no more goals after that, though not for want of trying - Clive Delaney was closest with an incredible overhead kick which came off the bar with Dempsey well beaten, while Barry Ryan pulled off a few Barry Ryan saves as well. In the replay, we lost 3-0 with two controversial late goals - one which looked offside and one which saw the linesman flagging while Bohs took close-range pot-shots on the UCD goal only to drop the flag when Bohs finally scored, much to the anger of the UCD fans.

Bohemians: Michael Dempsey, Pascal Vaudequin, Stephen Caffrey, Avery John, Robbie Brunton, Paul Byrne, Kevin Hunt, Doyle (Maurice O’Driscoll), Eóin Mullen (Gareth O’Connor), Glen Crowe (Derek Swan), Ray Kelly

UCD: Barry Ryan, Éamon McLoughlin, Alan Mahon, Clive Delaney, Rob McAuley, Brian mooney, Ciarán Kavanagh, Ciarán Martyn, John Martin, Mick O’Byrne, Peter Hanrahan (Glen Fitzpatrick)