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College Tribune | November 25th 2008
Sport News
Kitbag
WESTY’S SUPERLEAGUE
Br yan D
evlin
Basking in mediocrity
UCD boat club glide to success in Blessington UCD Boat Club once again asserted their prowess last Friday in a number of competitions on the day. The pairing of An-
I been over a month since I Its actually reported on a Supera lleague match so rather than get drawn into a rant about refg eree’s with paedophilic tendene ccies and pitches that are bushier tthan a science student’s special area I elected to check in with a my good friends from Fiorenm ttina Turner. After an impressive win last week over the highly ranked w Your Wife Sucks etc. etc. Y ‘Tina were hoping to con‘ tinue their good run of form t over who they thought were o an a inferior Sporting Lesbeans side. They were wrong. s Billed as a mid table clash, this th truly dismal display of “footballing” prowess by “ both teams could only really b be described as the Arnotts bargain basement of this ba weekend’s action; dull and a w little bit smelly. While ‘Tina lit were we the odds on favourites to climb the proverbial rubbish cli heap he in this tie, an early goal from the Lesbeans and an infro jury to ‘Tina’s goalkeeper had jur the men in blue (‘Tina) scratching their heads. However, it wasn’t long before they equawa lised with a thunderous drive lise from thirty yards. fro Overseen by Bilbo Baggins himself and held on Astro 1, him this game was doomed from the thi get-go. For those of you who get don’t know Astro 1 is where don
thony English and Colm Pierce picked up two pennants on the day winning the senior pairs event and also aiding the senior eight to victory. The club also fielded a student coxed four which placed second in their category and two intermediate eights which placed second and third. Meanwhile The UCD Ladies continued the Boat Club success in the Blessington event as they won the Inter eights Head and came in a very close second in the senior eights competition. Jason Timmons
Fiorentina Turner
Sporting Lesbeans
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scoring records are broken, at only ¾ size many games held here result in a scoreline which resembles a phone number. At times teams are reduced to hoofing the ball from goalkeeper to goalkeeper. It really made for a great spectacle. With ‘Tina narrowly in front at the break with the scores at 3-2 min their favour, it all went tits over arse when they decided to change goalkeepers and it wasn’t long until the Lesbeans racked up two quick goals. The keeper really couldn’t have caught a piece of ass on Parnell Street. He was soon moved from goal to the left wing and managed to make amends with a nice cross on the toe of the his team-mate who slotted home from 3 yards. It ended four all but only just. There we are now a real match report, normal service will resume after the Christmas break.
Dealing with the drop With the 2008 soccer season over for UCD, Colman Hanley reflects on the season with UCD assistant manager Martin Russell. In spite of the disapointment of relegation, UCD ended 2008 on a high with victory in the inaugural ‘A Championship’ final against Bohemians. The feeling of winning a trophy can only help motivate UCD for next years First Division. So after such a success, it was no surprise that Pete Mahon’s right hand man, Martin Russell, was a little bit more upbeat when looking back on the season. “It’s no surprise that winning the A Championship is our high point of the year but especially as it’s the first year of this competition. To win any final is fantastic, but too do so after the massive heartache of relegation shows what strong characters the players are. You’ve got to commend
them as they gave 100% all season. They’re semi-professional players who had to compete against full-time professional’s every week. As a club, we were competing with teams who wereoverspending and doing things they shouldn’t have been doing. That’s something we obviously feel victimised about as we kept things in order when sadly others did not.” “Fielding teams in the Premier Division, ‘A Championship’ and U-20 league meant the young lads got the experience of playing senior football and that’s great for their development. We had eight players who had first team experience playing in the ‘A’ final so that’s something to be really proud of. I’d like to think that
when some of the players are weighing their future’s up, they may stay because of things like that. Football is so unpredicatable as unfortunately you could get a career ending injury
at any time or just simply not make it as a player. Therefore the fundamentals that the college can offer to young players shouldn’t be underestimated or forgotten. To play football
in your country and gain an education to the level that the college offers is a prized asset and it’s definitely something young players should consider. Tony McDonnell is a prime example of things. He was able to play football at the highest level with us for many years. Then when he retired last year, he had a successful career to fall back on.” Russell knows this situation all too well. At 15 years old, he was hailed as one of the most outstanding schoolboy players ever from Ireland and was lucky enough to sign for Manchester United. But despite four years there, Russell was released. Despite spells at Leicester City, Scarborough and Middlesborough, he eventually re-