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Tuesday March 14, 2007

LIT Prove Too Strong For NUIG

Fitzgibbon Cup Final
LIT 2-15 NUIG 0-13

By Denis O'Brien

Limerick Institute of Technology cruised to a comfortable win over Galway rivals NUIG in the final of the Fitzgibbon Cup at Dr Cullen Park Carlow on Saturday last.

A pair of Aonghus O' Callanan and Joe Canning goals in the early part of both halves proved decisive as they put LIT in the driver seat and to be honest they never really looked threatened throughout.

The sides shared early scores with former Galway minors Canning and Callanan sharing 1-02, the goal an easy tap in for Callanan. Freetaker Daragh Egan was on target for NUIG with the scores reading 1-05 to 0-5 at the break. It was a lethargic affair for the opening period with penalty saves by both keepers the highlight.

LIT seized the initiative once more when just after a minute of the restart, Callanan with a great run forward passed to the waiting Canning who calmly slapped home.

Now down by nine points NUIG faced a tough battle to get back in the game.

Shortly after, the sides exchanged points before LIT had three unanswered points from Austin Murphy (2) and a Canning free to stretch the lead to 11 points with 20 mniutes left to play. Egan and Canning fired over a brace of frees before a good Galway period saw them hit three without reply. Egan hit two, one a lovely effort from play, with Finian Cooney also geeting in for a fine point.

Despite late efforts by NUIG, Kilkenny's Jackie Tyrell at full back for LIT was rock solid and cleared a lot of ball while Tippmen, Conor Manning and Shane McGrath were excellent at center and wing back respectively, with McGrath particularly good.

The last quarter saw LIT pull away once more and to outscore their opponents by 0-4 to 0-1 at the final whistle. Galway newcomer, John Lee was excellent at center back for NUIG and hit a mountain of ball and is turning into a fine hurler and natural center back, however, LIT's sharper forwards of Canning and Callanan on the inside line was the difference on the day

NFL Roundup

Donegal got revenge for their McKenna Cup defeat to rivals Tyrone when running out convincing 6-point winners in the 4th round of the football league. Donegal are unbeaten and top Div 1A and they take on the Kingdom next. Tyrone have come off two poor showings after going down last time to Cork so they will want to show no mercy with poor Limerick waiting nervously in the wings next time out. Cork meanwhile, fell badly to Dublin with a nine point thrashing while Kerry accounted for Limerick by one goal while Mayo had something to spare over Fermanagh.

In Div 1B, Galway continued good form of late with a two point win over Kildare, while Derry surprisingly saw off rivals Armagh, who are minus the Crossmaglen boys.

Louth who have gone close up to now had a great 8-point win over a good Westmeath side. These Wee county men, if they get any type of real confidence going, could be dark horses later in the year for Leinster. Down's woes continue as they fell to Laois. In Div 2, Cavan and Meath increased their good showing with wins while Monaghan had a good win over Clare. Leitrim fell to rivals Longford while Offaly trashed London, and Roscommon just got there in the end over a plucky Carlow outfit.

In the postponed NHL second round clash, Waterford proved four points winners over arch-rivals Cork. This should be good for their confidence to get one over on an experimental Rebel side that saw Diarmuid O'Sullivan lining out at full forward instead of his customary full back position.

In the All Ireland Intermediate Hurling Club Final, one for the exiles as London's Robert Emmetts easily saw off Killimordaly of Galway while Danesfort of Kilkenny won the AI Junior Club title with an equally emphatic win over Clooney Gaels of Antrim. In the Dr. Harty Cup final, Waterford's De La Salle college made history when beating St. Flannan's of Clare for their first ever Munster A Colleges Championship title.

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