It was a mixed day for AIT yesterday the 28th of January with some big fixtures down for decision.
The headline event was the Sigerson 1st round clash with UCD here on compus at 5pm. A large crowd was treated to a very competitive game which UCD won on a Scireline of 0-17 to AITs 2-07. The sides were level 1-04 to 0-07 at halftime. A James Dolan goal was one of the great AIT moments of the half and AIT even managed to miss a penalty which would have left the scoreboard a little more favourable to us. The winning of the game was in the first ten minutes of the second half as UCD kicked five unanswered points. An AIT revival of sorts was witnessed and Leitrims Shane Quinn managed to claw us back into the game with a great goal despite close attention in a crowed goalmouth. UCD though just had enough in the tank to see out the game. Well done in any case to the AIT players and the management of Martin McCabe, Sean Connell, Richie Murray and Kevin Gavin. Great pride was shown in the AIT jersey.
Meanwhile earlier in the day our Soccer B and D teams were in action. The Ds faced off against near neighbours Moate College in the quarter final of the CFAI Umbro Bob Eustace Cup but our fourth string were unlucky to lose 6-3 after extra time. It was a magnificent season for the Ds and they can be rightly proud of their achievements under coaches John Stacey and Mark Rigney.
The final fixture of the day came in LIT where our Soccer B team were in semi final action in the Colleges and Universities Division 2 (CUFL) versus LIT/Tipp Institute. Things looked bleak early on as the AIT lads fell two goals behind before a comeback was manufactured. A 3-2 turnaround came about before the lead was relinguished back to 3-3 to bring to game to penalties. Mark Langtry was the hero between the sticks for AIT as the save below brought us to our first ever CUFL Division 2 Final. Our goalscorers were Idris Ideye, Jamie Walsh and Stefano Ceirona. Well done to the players and manager Colin Fortune for breaking our penalty shootout hoodoo!!
The soccer A team are in action today where we have the opportunity to avenge our Sigerson defeat to UCD as we play them in the CUFL Premier Division Semi Final. The game takes place in Leixlip.