Irish warm up for finals with shoot-out joy over England
IRELAND gave themselves a shot in the arm ahead of the World Cup finals later this month when they finished third in the Four Nations tournament in Valencia, one place above their ranking.
And what was particularly significant was that they came out on top against England yesterday, albeit on a 4-3 shoot-out after a 2-2 draw, as they will be facing their old rivals in the final pool game in India.
Alexander Cox’s lads also beat the English 2-1 earlier in the Four Nations series, and these results, added to the slender 1-0 defeat against hosts Spain, augur well for what lies ahead.
The only blips were the heavy defeats against World No.4 Netherlands — 7-1 and 5-2 — but those are the type of results you can almost expect when you face such professional outfits.
Yesterday the Green Machine came from behind twice to force a 2-2 draw and take the game into the shoot-out.
Their goals came from Ulstermen Eugene Magee and Sean Murray, while Magee also converted in the run-ins.
The first half proved scoreless but then England, with Ulstermen Ian Sloan and Mark Gleghorne in their ranks, took the lead through Zach Wallace only for Magee to level minutes later after great work by fellow Ulsterman Michael Robson.
England restored their lead from Luke Taylor’s penalty corner, although the ball didn’t seem to travel out of the circle, but Murray popped up to square matters again four minutes from time.
Robson missed the first runin for the Irish but Magee, Alan Sothern, Shane O’Donoghue and Darragh Walsh all beat England ’keeper George Pinner while Irish ’keeper David Fitzgerald saved efforts from Phil Roper and Barry Middleton to secure the win.
The final went as per rankings, with Netherlands beating Spain 3-2.
Saturday’s 5-2 defeat against the Dutch saw Lisnagarvey’s Jonathan Bell win his 150th cap, with Kirk Shimmins reaching 100 and Fitzgerald 50.
Meanwhile, both EY Irish Hockey League games on Saturday ended all square, with Cookstown drawing 1-1 at Cork C of I and unbeaten Glenanne held to 3-3 at YMCA. Greg Allen scored the goal that keeps the Tyrone side ahead of the bottom two while Glenanne’s draw means they are three points behind Banbridge at the top of the table when it could have been less.
It’s Dublin teams dominating the IHL’s second tier, with UCD and Railway Union topping Pool A and Corinthian out in front in Pool B.
Kilkeel were the only winners from Ulster’s three representatives, a Luke Russell double helping them to a 5-1 win at UCC.
But Bangor crashed 7-2 at home to Bangor while a double from Gavin Leckey came too late to help Inst who at one stage trailed Corinthian by four goals before it finally ended 5-2.
Goals from Stephen Armstrong and Andrew Hagan gave Civil Service their first win in the Ulster Premier League and Mossley maintained their unbeaten start with a 6-3 success at Raphoe where Ross McIvor and Irish international Neal Glassey scored twice each.
Two goals from Colin McKnight earned Newry a 2-2 draw against North Down at the border venue.
Four Nations tournament (Valencia):
Final: Spain 2 Netherlands 3; 3rd/4th: England 2 (Z Wallace, L Taylor) Ireland 2 (E Magee, S Murray) Ireland won shoot-out 4-3
EY Irish Hockey League: Cork C of I 1 (J Bruton) Cookstown 1 (G Allen); Dublin YMCA 3 (J Tobin 2, B Campbell) Glenanne 3 (S O’Connor, G Shaw, B Venter)
IHL2: Pool A: Bangor 2 (J Easlie, R Cunningham) Railway Union 7 (R Forrest, A McGregor, D McArthur, S McKeever, F Keaveney, O McArthur, J McKeever); Bandon 1 (F O’Leary) UCD 2 (D Nolan, A Tutty)
IHL2 Pool B: UCC 1 (J Costello) Kilkeel 5 (L Russell 2, M Stevenson, J Aiken, A Graham); Corinthian 5 (I Stewart 2, D Howard, G Dagg, J Perdue) Instonians 2 (G Leckey);
Ulster Premier League: Belfast Harlequins 1 (J Neill) Civil Service 2 (S Armstrong, A Hagan); Newry Olympic 2 (C McKnight 2) North Down 2 (J Moore, P Templeton); Raphoe 3 (T Orr, G Patterson, J Long) Mossley 6 (N Glassey 2, R McIvor 2, J Robinson, M Anderson).