They left it late, the students, but they'll not be complaining. For the best part of this frantic and incident packed play-off game at Belfield Park last night it seemed that they would not be able to wear down a Limerick side which, although leading for a brief period, came to town looking for a draw and very nearly got one.
"It was daylight robbery," said Dave Connell afterwards as he pondered a string of late sendings off and an Aidan Lynch winner scored six minutes into injury time, "Dublin officials for a game like this, it's enough to make you laugh.
"There's a lot of people who don't want us in this league (the premier division)," he went on "but, whether they like it or not, we're going to get there eventually." Thirty seconds from the end and Friday night would have looked a pretty decent bet.
Last night, from the very early exchanges, it appeared we were going to be in for a treat. Jason Sherlock might have found the net within a couple of minutes at one end and Sean Byrne went close to driving home at the other. In between both sides moved the ball swiftly and each found that there was space to move into up front even if the finishing hadn't quite slipped into gear yet.
By the 20th minute, when the opening goal came, it was clear that it was the students who were in the process of taking control of the match.
Still, it was they who conceded it, their defenders deciding on a mid-match nap while Anthony Tobin, alert to his team-mates' movement towards the box, slipped the ball through to Howie King who, in turn, poked it by Seamus Kelly without giving the matter a second thought.
Hapless stuff, but thankfully for the home side it was quickly shown to be a game of two dozey back fours with Limerick's doing as much as any of the locals to even matters up within a couple of minutes.
Mick O'Byrne floated his long free kick towards the middle of the area from some 40 yards but even as their manager screamed at them to pick up their men, the two centre halves surrendered the aerial advantage and one of their opposite numbers, Tony McDonnell, came off much the better of a clash with Derek White to turn the ball towards the top left hand corner of the goal.
Eddie Hickey, to be fair, did well to get a touch but at other times he too looked to be vulnerable, wandering to far off his line.
They were strangely reluctant, though, never more so than, shortly before the interval, just after their full-back Declan Fitzgerald had been carried off with a broken leg, when O'Byrne's free from the left was left to run untouched across the face of a goal when it had looked inevitable that one of the three UCD players threatening would tap home.
None of UCD's chances looked like amounting to anything, though, and as the seconds ticked away the only edge they seemed likely to have was in terms of personnel on the pitch, a battle they were up by 10 to eight in after Jason Sherlock, Albert Finan and Jason O'Connor were all sent off in the wake of a punch up. Gareth Byrne followed moments later for a grim looking challenge on Clive Delaney.
With the many hold ups contributing to the extensive added time, though, the final whistle simply never came for Limerick and long after they must have thought they were going home with the tie still level, Lynch arrived in the nick of time to bury a Robert McAuley corner that had taken at least one touch on.
Had the home side taken their chances or their visitors not dug so deep it would have been more and with things still tightly balanced Friday evening will be, one suspects, equally, well, uncomprising.
UCD: Kelly; McLoughlin, Delaney, McDonnell, Fitzgerald; Lynch; Martyn, Kavanagh, Griffin; Sherlock, O'Byrne. Subs: McAuley for Fitzgerald (45 mins).
Limerick: Hickey; Hanrahan, Finan, White, Casey; G Ryan, Tobin, Byrne, O'Neill; King, O'Connor. Subs: O'Donnell for Hanrahan (19 mins), Nolan for Byrne (59 mins).
Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).
