A thrilling day of Colleges FAI Finals at Athlone Town Stadium today with both games requiring extra time to crown the champions.

TU Dublin completed a magnificent league and cup double when they edged out Dundalk IT 2-1 in the Perpetual Cup Final while IT Carlow took the Plate also with a 2-1 victory over Munster TU Cork.

Colleges Perpetual Cup (Final)

Dundalk IT 1 TU Dublin 2 (aet)
Dundalk IT Goal: Ebuka Kwelele
TU Dublin Goals: Aaron Dobb, Matty O’Brien

Mattie O’Brien’s extra time goal helped TU Dublin overcome Dundalk IT and capture the Colleges FAI Perpetual Cup to complete the league and cup double in their first season under the new entity.

It’s been a great seven days for the Dublin side as last week they defeated University of Limerick to take the Colleges and Universities League Premier Division title.

But it was tough on the division side Dundalk who looked like causing somewhat of a shock when they finally broke the deadlock with five minutes of normal time remaining. Great work by Jamal Ibrahim set up the chance for Ebuke Kwelele to finish and give Dundalk the lead.

However, a last minute equaliser from ace marksman Aaron Dobbs sent the game into extra time. In the first additional period, Matty O’Brien hit a long-range speculative effort which beat goalkeeper Niall Brady and proved enough for TU Dublin to come out on top.

The game had seen Dundalk match their opponents for the 90 minutes but the Louth side failed to make their efforts count with James Carroll, Jeff Nwodo and Seb Beslic all going close but found TU Dublin 'keeper Lee Stacey in top form.

TU Dublin were without the suspended Conor Levingston and Jamin Nwanze but had Dobbs and Rob Manley again as their main striker partnership and the pair kept Dundalk ‘keeper Niall Brady busy.

Manley had hit the crossbar early on and he came closest to opening the scoring in the second half with a spectacular effort that needed a super save from Brady.

Then a late Kwelele goal looked like the cup was heading to Dundalk until Dobbs got clear to beat Brady and O’Brien completed the task in extra time.

Colleges FAI Plate

Munster TU-Cork 1 IT Carlow 2 (aet)
Munster TU-Cork Goal: Conor Drinan
IT Carlow Goals: Ravelli Kilonda, Evan Farrell

A goal each from substitutes Ravelli Kilonda and Evan Farrell gave IT Carlow a narrow 2-1 victory over Munster TU Cork in the CFAI Plate Final.

It was a highly competitive game between two evenly matched sides and it needed 20 minutes of extra time to see Carlow take the honours.

The first half remained scoreless with defences well on top and both keepers had very little to deal with as the few efforts on goal either flew past the post or went over the top.

Conor Drinan was proving a threat up front and went close for the Cork side while Anto Dolan might have put Carlow in front but his strike flew just past the post.

The deadlock was broken on 72 minutes when Drinan pounced on a mix up between Carlow ‘keeper Alex Moody and his defenders to gain possession and roll the ball into the unguarded net.

Carlow were quickly back in the game and minutes later Kilonda who had replaced the injured Tom Considine just before half time cut in from the right wing and fired high into the top corner of Gavin Ryan’s net to level the tie.

The game was finely balanced going into 20 minutes of extra time and it was another Carlow substitute who clinched the win.

Farrell had come on for the injured Naythan Coleman just before half time and five minutes into the first period he was on hand to side foot the ball past Ryan from a well delivered Kevin McEvoy cross that proved to be the Carlow winner.