Coach calls on players to raise their game with Cup tie looming
LISNAGARVEY are fast gaining a reputation of killing off their opponents in the final minutes of the game.
They did it again yesterday afternoon at Banbridge where Sean Murray’s winner came just 30 seconds from the end of a cracking Irish Senior Cup tie which saw Errol Lutton’s lads sneak through 3-2.
And 24 hours earlier they were similar last-gasp assassins when they scored twice in the final 90 seconds to chalk up a 6-3 win at Pembroke in the rearranged EY Irish Hockey League game in Dublin to keep them tucked in behind early leaders Glenanne with a game in hand.
But if Garvey are making a name for themselves with late goals, they are also showing the character within the side — in all three competitive games this season to date they have had to come from behind to win.
Yesterday’s success against the cup holders highlighted both aspects, with Garvey falling behind to Philip Brown’s sixth-minute penalty corner and then going 2-1 ahead with a double striker from skipper Daniel Buser.
His first came from a wellworked deflection from a penalty corner and the second saw him pop up at the back post to slot home. Alex Tinney levelled matters from a penalty corner rebound in the second half and suddenly Bann had their best spell of the game and really should have sealed matters with Bruce McCandless, Fraser Mills and Matthew Allister all coming close.
But they were made pay dearly when Sean Murray took a quick free in the final minute and managed to weave the ball into the circle before firing home for a dramatic winner.
“I knew time was running out and I just managed to get the ball into the circle before having a swing to see it flash home,” said Murray afterwards.
“We’re getting a lot of late goals at the moment, but we’ll have to stop going behind early on and making life difficult for ourselves.”
Altogether there are eight Ulster teams among the 16 going into the second round draw, with strikes from Oliver Flack, Peter Caruth and Craig Getty giving Annadale a 3-0 success at Dublin University yesterday.
Two goals from David Finlay earned Kilkeel a 2-2 draw at Avoca, and it was goals from Eddie Agnew, Gareth Russell and Mark Stevenson in the shoot-out that saw them advance to join Mossley, South Antrim, Queen’s and Belfast Harlequins who received byes, Garvey and the winners of
Set piece star: Banbridge’s Philip Brown hit a penalty corner in the sixth minute for his team
the delayed tie between Instonians and Cookstown.
Back to the IHL, and it was an Andy Williamson hat-trick that helped Garvey to their 6-3 win at Pembroke on Saturday while a Philip Brown hat-trick of penalty corners earned them a 4-0 win over Annadale.
Cookstown lost for the third time by the odd goal when they went down 2-1 at Cork C of I.
Meanwhile, the opening round of fixtures in the Ulster Premier League saw wins for
Bangor, Harlequins, Portadown, Mossley, Newry and North Down.
Chris Barnes rammed in four goals for Civil Service but still ended up on the losing side in the nine-goal thriller at Bangor. Irish Senior Cup: Banbridge 2 (Brown, Tinney) Lisnagarvey 3 (Buser 2, Murray); Dublin Univ. 0 Annadale 3 (Flack, Caruth, C Getty); Clontarf 1 (Murray) Railway 3; Avoca 2 (Elmes 2) Kilkeel 2 (Finlay 2) Kilkeel won shoot-out 3-2; Rathgar 0 Pembroke 4 (Burns, Sothern, Spain, K Shimmins); Monkstown 9 (Sarratt 4, Quirke, Carson, Cole, Smith, Kenning) Corinthian 0
EY Irish Hockey League: Pembroke 3 (Sothern 2, Burns) Lisnagarvey 6 (Willamson 3, Murray 2, Nelson); Banbridge 4 (Brown 3, Ward) Annadale 0; Cork C of I 2 (Jermyn, Millar) Cookstown 1 (Barbour); Railway Union 0 Monkstown 2 (Smyth, D Carson); Three Rock Rovers 2 (Blakeney, Walker) Glenanne 3 (O’Malley 2, Couse)
Premier League: Bangor 5 (McCombe 2, Cunningham, McKee, McClune) Civil Service 4 ( Barnes 4); Harlequins 5 (McKenna 2, Patterson 2, McGrath) Raphoe 0; Cliftonville 2 Portadown 3 (Titler 2, Davidson); Newry 3 (Russell, England, McKnight) Queen’s 2 (Gamble, Getty); North Down 3 South Antrim 2 (Brown 2); Mossley 3 (Robinson 2, Dow) Antrim 1 (McBride)
Not happy: Darren O’Neill BELFAST Star coach Darren O’Neill says his players will have to raise their game if they are to progress to the quarter-finals of the Cup this weekend.
Star went down 75-73 to Killester in the All Ireland Superleague at MCB on Saturday night after they had a late Clement Kulinicz basket ruled out and now turn their attention to an away trip to Templeogue.
O’Neill was left deeply frustrated by the loss to the Dubliners, which saw Star only convert 50% of their free throws as well as just two baskets out of 16 from the three-point line. Both figures were a world away from their stats in the opening four league games, including the loss to Swords seven days earlier.
Yet. With four seconds on the clock they had the chance to go 75-74 ahead when Kulinicz bounced the ball before sinking a rebound. Victory seemed secured but instead the referee ruled it out and then a foul gave Killester the chance to extend their lead.
“The bottom line is that we were poor and it was an inexplicable performance. We have dust ourselves down and make sure we work hard and are ready to deliver a better performance against Templeogue in the Cup,” said O’Neill.
“Even if Clement’s basket had stood and we had got the win I would have looked upon it as stealing the points because we just weren’t anywhere near our best. I didn’t have a good look at the basket from Clement but certainly he and the other guys didn’t think he had travelled.
“But that wasn’t the reason we lost the game. When you look at our free throw stats, just converting 50% is not good enough and it’s clear we need to work on our three point shooting this week in training.”
American Ryan Oliver top scored for Star on 30 points with Conor Quinn on 17.
Star will welcome back Keelan Cairns this week for the clash with Templeogue.
In Division One, the Ulster Elks lost 94-83 away to Fr Mathews.