Bandon bid to frustrate students again

UCC get a chance to prove their league slip-up against Bandon was just a one-off when the sides meet again in the Munster Senior Cup quarter-finals at the Mardyke tomorrow (2.30pm). Having stunned champions Catholic Institute 3-0 at Rosbrien, College undid much of that good work with a flat performance against Bandon last week, and needed a late Emily O’Leary goal to salvage a 1-1 draw. Bandon are a much tougher proposition since the return of Ciara Harte and Ciara McCarthy having suffered at the start of the campaign, and they too will wish to show they can mix it with the league’s top sides every week.

College will have worked hard on their set-pieces this week having wasted 11 corners last time out, and will be keen to end the first half of their 2012/13 campaign on a high. Catholic Institute have plenty of reasons to take their anger out on Ashton — the near miss in the sides’ league clash, the shock loss to UCC and the twice-cancelled Irish Senior Cup clash with Pegasus. They came back from a goal down to see off Alan Dobson’s troops 2-1 in a keenly-contested tie at Ursulines Blackrock in October, but it’s tough to know where Ashton find themselves after some mixed results since then. They have shown up well to be quite secure in fourth place in the league, but the 6-0 home Irish Trophy defeat to Belfast Harlequins was a big blot on their copybook. Limerick know they must shut down the twin threats of Cliodhna Sargent and Yvonne O’Byrne – while hoping Cork Harlequins’s other playmakers have an off-day – to have a chance of causing an upset at Villiers. In men’s hockey, all eyes turn to the Mardyke with UCC needing to shock Cork C of I to have any chance of staying in the title race, while Quins will be looking to dispatch a Bandon side still reeling from a Peard Cup whitewash against C of I. Women: Munster Senior Cup quarter-finals: Limerick v Cork Harlequins, Villiers, 1.15pm; Catholic Institute v Ashton, Rosbrien, 2pm; UCC v Bandon, Mardyke, 2.30pm. Men: Munster Div 1: UCC v Cork C of I, Mardyke, 12.30pm; Cork Harlequins v Bandon, Farmer’s Cross, 1.30pm.