An early lightning strike from Ciarán Behan brought UCD their first win of the season in the clash of the bottom two at the UCD Bowl.

Andy Myler’s Students remain at the foot of the table but reduced the gap on ninth-place Cork to four points.

Cork may have won the first meeting of the sides when cruising to a 4-0 victory at Turner’s Cross early last month, but they had a rude awakening here as UCD started on the front foot and punished them to take the lead after just 53 seconds with the only goal of the night.

Mark Dignam was the architect, winning the ball off a sluggish Joe O’Brien-Whitmarsh before skipping past Aaron Bolger.

He laid the ball off to Behan who rifled a low drive past James Corcoran.

Cork were fortunate not to find themselves further behind on 20 minutes; captain Jack Keaney having a shot deflected for a corner before Behan shot wide.

The visitors swapped Tunde Owolabi for Keating up top ahead of the second half to try to inject some urgency to their attack.

But despite enjoying more of the ball, they continued to struggle to create openings, UCD defending doggedly as Cork failed to register a shot on target in the second half.

UCD then finished the stronger with Behan hitting a post on 78 minutes, substitute Alex Nolan blazing the rebound over the top.

UCD – Moore; Osam (O’Regan, 76), Keaney, Wells (Norris, 73), Dempsey; Barr, Dignam; Behan, Keane, Higgins; Doyle (Nolan, 69).

Cork City – Corcoran; Honohan, Hakkinen, Gilchrist, Custovic (Coffey, 60); Bolger, Coleman; Murphy, O’Brien-Whitmarsh (Crowley, 83), Krezic (Varian, 83); Keating (Owolabi, h-t).

Ref – A Reale (Kildare).