Corinthian overcome Bulls charge

Corinthian 5 (Rowland Rixon-Fuller 2, Darren Kimfley, Davy Carson Dan Williams) Clontarf 1 (Tom Noonan)
Corinthian were made to work by a well organised and well structured Clontarf but ultimately their quality told in the second half as they notched up the goals to source a 5-1 win. Tom Noonan's brave first half strike gave the Bulls a first half lead as he slid in to complete a counter-attack, taking both ball and post in the process, picking up a nasty gash for his troubles.

But the red fought back in the second half and, enjoying the majority of possession throughout, finally took their chances to score five second half goals with Darren Kimfley, Davy Carson, Dan Williams and Rowland Rixon-Fuller's double doing the damage. Andrew Poynter's superb forehand drive denied Brian Doherty at corner time with one of the more spectacular goal-line clearances this season.

Monsktown 2 (Matt Fairweather, Gareth Watkins) TRR 2 (Pierre de Voux 2)
Both sides will feel they might have been robbed of all three points at a lively affair at Rathdown. Three Rock certainly stole one as they recovered from a 2-0 deficit but the final act of the game saw Pierre de Voux denied a hat-trick as the final whistle beat a simple finish into an open goal. Prior to that, Monkstown were the better side, taking a 1-0 lead into half-time through Matt Fairweather's drag-flick and Gareth Watkins doubled the lead, via David Storey's stick, with a reverse-stick effort. De Voux pulled one back from a neat corner move before equalising very late. He was assisted by debutant Ross Canning and the double-act almost produced the winner in the last seconds as Rovers countered from a Town corner. Canning squared to de Voux only for a blast of the whistle to end the day's action in which Patrick Shanahan was sin-binned.

UCD 2 (John McInroy, Tim Hill) Fingal 1 (Tom Manning)
UCD produced back-to-back league victories for the first time since their promotion back to the top tier as they continued their improvement to beat Fingal. John McInroy scored the only goal of the first half, once again the student's intricate corner machine paying dividends, as the player-coach deflected home. Tom Manning equalised within a minute of the second half restart. But Tim Hill scored a corner rebound from Rob Lynch drag-flick for the winner. Fingal almost gained a share of the spoils in the last minute but Ross Gribben produced the save of the day to keep out David Bane's effort as UCD got the points their effort deserved. Lloyd Pearson picked up the one yellow of a relatively clean game.

* For more of Adrian Boehm's photos from UCD vs Fingal, click here