Dublin University Association Football Club (DUAFC) went into the second round of the Herald Metropolitan Cup on Saturday afternoon with its spirits high after breezing past previous opponents, Mid Sutton Sportslink FC. Sutton’s players were more memorable for their tackling rather than their talent, ending the game with nine men, and Saturday’s opponents, Inchicore Athletic FC, were a team made in the same mould. After a bruising encounter, DUAFC emerged the victors with a hard-fought 2–1 victory.
The game’s opening moments were indicative of what was to come, with Trinity attempting to play football and Inchicore consistently attempting to tackle its way through the opposition, seemingly more intent on getting in the opposing players’ heads rather than getting the ball into the goal. It took only a minute before the first yellow card was shown, after a violent two-footed foul by Inchicore’s Stephen Kinch on Trinity’s Dylan Stacey. Questions were raised about Stacey’s ability to carry on, as even his coach was advising him to come-off, but he continued to soldier on, as did Trinity, and the team was soon reaping the rewards, within the opening 15 minutes.
After a rare bit of pressure from Inchicore, DUAFC broke, playing a ball onto the left-wing towards Oisín Pennycook, a player who had appeared dangerous from the opening whistle. Pennycook controlled the ball nicely, charging forward and dancing past two Inchicore players before floating a well-thought cross onto the far post where an unmarked Muhanned Bukhatwa headed past the goalkeeper.
Trinity were expected to kick on and score more goals, coming close with a Niall Carruthers effort that hit the post, but instead of being galvanised by an early lead, the team soon allowed sloppiness enter into its play. Inchicore looked like a team lacking in creativity but were comfortable in applying pressure, searching for Trinity’s ailments and exploiting them.
And sure enough Inchicore clawed one back. After some typical high pressing from the visitors, Carruthers needlessly lost the ball in his own half due to a refusal to clear the ball up-field and Inchicore’s Jack Chonin pounced on his mistake, disposing Carruthers of possession before launching a powerful strike into the top left hand corner that DUAFC’s Devan Connolly could do nothing about.
“Get your head out of your asses now”, screamed one Inchicore defender, presumably at Trinity’s perceived pretentiousness. The team had little choice but to heed his advice. More crunching tackles by Inchicore, which included a sliding tackle by Darren Howe that somehow only received a yellow card, reminded all the Trinity players of the battle ahead.
And Trinity came out fighting. With an early display to match the beginnings of its first half, the hosts constantly sought to carve open the opposition defence and, within 15 minutes, they did so. A powerful and purposeful run by Trinity’s Niall Cullen ended when he played a lovely through ball to Bukhatwa to put him in one-on-one with the keeper. Bukhatwa needed just two touches, one to control the ball and another to place it beyond the keeper’s reach into the bottom corner. It was his second goal of the game and despite having amongst the fewest touches of any Trinity player he had all the most important ones. He was perfectly happy to play the poacher but showed his flexibility with his display in the final 30 minutes of the game, suddenly transforming into a work-horse, determined to see Trinity hold onto its lead.
The final 30 minutes featured a pragmatic, if shaky, display by DUAFC. Trinity always looked more comfortable pushing forward and creating chances rather than sitting deep and defending but such an approach seemed to evaporate in both halves as soon as Trinity scored a goal. Inchicore never looked like creating anything through sheer brilliance but believed they could grab a goal through riding its own luck. If anything, Trinity encouraged them in this belief.
Inchicore came close to scoring numerous times due to Trinity’s sloppiness and unwillingness to attack. In the closing stages, Trinity looked most vivacious during the rare times that it did decide to get numbers forward. But DUAFC was too dependent upon the surging runs of Oisín Pennycook, who came close twice towards the end, and the hard and dogged work of Muhanned Bukhatwa.
Ultimately, nothing but the end result matters for DUAFC, as the team marches into the last 16 of the Metro Cup. They proved, once again, that their footballing philosophy of passing, patient and entertaining football can triumph over any display of footballing physicality. But DUAFC needs to be more ruthless – the team’s unwillingness to kill off the games that it dominates may come back to haunt it.
