{"id":245064,"date":"2026-01-14T23:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245064\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T23:22:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:22:19","slug":"ucc-book-quarter-final-spot-after-impressive-win-over-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245064\/","title":{"rendered":"UCC book quarter-final spot after impressive win over Queen’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCC: 1-19 (1-3-13)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s University Belfast: 2-14 (2-0-14)\u00a0<\/p>\n

UCC have booked their spot in the 2026 Sigerson Cup quarter-finals following an impressive win over a fancied Queen\u2019s University Belfast side at rain-soaked Abbotstown in Dublin on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Both sides came into this Round 2A encounter on the back of victories last week, but it was UCC who came out of an enjoyable contest with a two-point win.<\/p>\n

Three two-pointers went a long way to getting the Cork team over the line with Michael McSweeney raising two orange flags while a crucial late two-pointer from Ruair\u00ed Murphy was massive.<\/p>\n

Paul O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s side showed immense character given they had to play a short period in the first half with a player less after Conor Daly picked up a black card.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They led by five points at the short whistle and had to weather a Queen\u2019s storm in the second half, but UCC had a more balanced team and had more shooters to prevail.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Horgan of UCC in action against Joe Corrigan of Queen’s University Belfast. Picture: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Both sides traded the first four points in what was an open and attacking game of football. James Horgan and a Daly free with the points for UCC.<\/p>\n

Queen’s then raised a green flag after eight minutes, which was quite fortuitous. Donal Scullion’s effort came back off the post only for Ryan McQuillan to react quickest to finish to the net, 1-2 to 0-2.<\/p>\n

UCC\u2019s response was positive though with excellent midfielder McSweeney slotting over an effort and then raising an orange flag to draw level.<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s then put together two unanswered points until UCC got their own lucky goal when Ciar\u00e1n Santry pounced on a mistake from Queen\u2019s goalkeeper Aaron Lee to nudge his team ahead, 1-5 to 1-4 after 16 minutes.<\/p>\n

Two minutes later, Daly received a black card for an off-the-ball-incident. The Cork side went down to 14 players for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Luke Diamond did draw his side level, but UCC put together four points on the trot including another two-pointer from McSweeney, this one coming from a free, 1-10 to 1-5 at half-time.<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s started the new half with a Noah Grimes point, but UCC\u2019s brave approach was paying off.<\/p>\n

\"DanDan Peet of UCC in action against Ryan McQuillan of Queen’s University Belfast. Picture: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Emmet Daly restored his side\u2019s five-point buffer with a great point following a free-flowing team move.<\/p>\n

Good work from Ruair\u00ed Murphy set up Daly to push UCC six points clear after 36 minutes, 1-12 to 1-6.<\/p>\n

Tom Cunningham was having a hugely effective game in the middle of the pitch for O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s charges.<\/p>\n

He did help his team keep in front in what was a firm purple patch for Queen\u2019s. They kicked four of the next five points to reduce the deficit down to three points, 1-13 to 1-10.<\/p>\n

An Olan Corcoran effort from an acute angle was a settling score for UCC after a tricky spell.<\/p>\n

They could have put the game to bed, another brilliant move with Santry playing a big part as the ball ended up with Daly, but his shot went across the face of goal and wide.<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s rallied though and were ahead, 2-14 to 1-16 going into the closing stages with Grimes\u2019 goal giving them a foothold.<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Cunningham of UCC in action against Anton Tohill of Queen’s University Belfast. Picture: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Ruair\u00ed Murphy stepped up and slotted over a mighty two-pointer to give UCC a slender lead before UCC sub Cormac Dillon tacked on a free to give his side a great triumph.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, MTU Cork are out of the 2026 Sigerson Cup after losing their Round 2B clash against Ulster University, 1-16 to 1-11.<\/p>\n

It was their second successive loss.<\/p>\n

Scorers for UCC: M McSweeney 0-5 (1 2pt f, 1 2pt), C Santry 1-1, C Daly 0-3 (0-1 f), R Murphy (1 2pt), J Horgan, C Dillon (0-1 f), O Corcoran 0-2 each, T Cunningham, E Daly 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s University Belfast: N Grimes 1-4, R Cassidy 0-5 (0-1 f), R McQuillan 1-1 (0-1 f), L Diamond 0-3, C Higgins 0-1.<\/p>\n

UCC: A Murphy (Renard, Kerry); D Peet (Clonakilty), J O\u2019Driscoll (Valley Rovers), C Gammell (Killarney Legion, Kerry); L Evans (Keel, Kerry), C Molloy (Nemo Rangers), C Kenneally (Clonakilty); M McSweeney (Knocknagree), T Cunningham (Kilshannig); R Murphy (Listry, Kerry), E Daly (Valentia Young Islanders, Kerry), J Horgan (Firies, Kerry); O Corcoran (St Mary\u2019s), C Daly (Clonakilty), C Santry (Carbery Rangers).<\/p>\n

Subs: C Dillon (Duagh, Kerry) for E Daly (46), D O\u2019Connor (Kenmare Shamrocks, Kerry) for C Gammell (48), D Desmond (Ballincollig) for C Daly (52), H Ahearne (Ballincollig) for L Evans (56).<\/p>\n

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST: A Lee; J Clarke, J Finnegan, R Forbes; C Hynds, C O\u2019Neill, D Scullion; D Higgins, A Tohill; C Higgins, R Cassidy, L Diamond; N Grimes, M Burnett, R McQuillan.<\/p>\n

Subs: L McManus for M Burnett (45), M Ennis for R McQuillan (50), J Corrigan for C Hynds (52), R Callaghan for D Higgins (60).<\/p>\n

Referee: Andrew Smith (Meath).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCC: 1-19 (1-3-13)\u00a0 Queen\u2019s University Belfast: 2-14 (2-0-14)\u00a0 UCC have booked their spot in the 2026 Sigerson Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1964,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-245064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cork-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}