, ,

Glens back on top as O’Donoghue strikes at the last against Dale

Men’s EY Hockey League – day nine round-up
Three Rock Rovers 1 (R Canning) Monkstown 1 (G Sarratt)
For a third time this season, a Monkstown performance has knocked the current first placed side off top as they drew 1-1 with Three Rock Rovers at Grange Road.

It followed wins over Lisnagarvey and Glenanne and they were within a couple of minutes of repeating the trick only for Ross Canning’s corner deflection to level it in the 67th minute. On the flip side, James Walker almost won the day when he clipped the underside of the bar moments later but a draw was probably a fair result.

Both sides were understrength with Town missing David Nolan, Jazze Henry, Nick Dee and Andrew Fogarty for the tie while Ben Johnson was missing for Rovers with Ben Ryder and Mark Samuel not lasting the half due to injuries.

Rovers had the best of the first half hour with Dave Fitzgerald producing a fine performance, the pick of the early interventions a scramble away a chance from Evan Jennings who also shot inches wide.

Town survived 12 minutes of suspensions before returning to 11 players with devastating effect just before half-time with a pitch-length move, starting with a turnover in their own defensive left corner which was transferred out to Rory Nichols charging at pace. His cross found Guy Sarratt on the left of the D and he shot home.

The Rathdown club carried that upper hand into the third quarter with a couple of near misses from Sarratt and Jeremy Duncan. Rovers, though, threw everything forward in the last 10 minutes with Fitzgerald producing the pick of his saves from Ali Haughton before Canning equalised with a touch to Jody Hosking’s corner power-slap to share the spoils.

Monkstown’s Dave FItzgerald makes a key block. Pic: Adrian Boehm

UCD 2 (J Menelaou, S Byrne) Pembroke 3 (J Dale 2, G Chambers)
Pembroke picked up a vital 3-2 win over UCD in their tussle with UCD at the bottom of the table. They built a healthy 3-0 lead and while the Belfielders fought back with two goals in the last 10 minutes, the result gives Pembroke a six-point buffer between them and bottom place but they remain in the relegation places on goal difference.

The Ballsbridge club were in control in the first half with Matthew O’Brien Holohan needing to be sharp to deny Harry Spain’s drag-flick. The goalkeeper was unfortunate to be beaten from the third phase of one attack as he blocked Julian Dale’s deflection and a Cillian Hynes follow-up shot but Greg Chambers picked off the third attack.

Dale dragged in Pembroke’s third corner in the minutes before half-time for a deserved 2-0 lead. He drew a brilliant glove save from O’Brien Holohan who also denied Chambers a second with a low-down block.

The third came from a peach of a strike from Dale after Scott Sullivan’s show and go opened up the chance. UCD struggled to create much prior to that phase but they finished strong. Peter Lynch deflected a crash ball into the path of Jay Menelaou and the former Avoca man controlled it perfectly to evade the last defender and goalkeeper. Sam Byrne then batted in a corner rebound in the last minute but Pembroke had done enough and closed the gap significantly to the sides above them.

Annadale 2 (T Cross, A McAllister) Glenanne 3 (S O’Donoghue 3)
Shane O’Donoghue’s final second goal saw Glenanne return to the top of the table, completing his hat trick to make it 3-2 with the very last play of the contest.

Dale have proven a strong competitor this season and they had the half-time lead when Tim Cross banged in a straight hit from a penalty corner. O’Donoghue levelled from the penalty spot and his drag-flick made it 2-1 going into the final quarter.

Adam McAllister equalised with time running out but a last-ditch corner was nailed once more by O’Donoghue for a seventh win from the first half of the season.

Lisnagarvey 2 (B Nelson, O Kidd) Banbridge 2 (C Curry, L Rowe)
Lisnagarvey and Banbridge drew in a high octane, late afternoon tussle at Comber Road which sees Garvey drop to third place with Bann consolidate their fifth place a little bit more.

It was a tie brought forward by an hour to allow the game to go ahead as six Covid cases in the top umpire panel’s ranks along with an injury meant a number of hastily rearranged appointments. It is a testament to the ingenuity of the Irish Hockey Umpires Association to rejig their placments along with the agreement of the teams to allow the change at short notice to allow the game to go ahead.

On the field, Garvey went in front in the first quarter from the first clear-cut opportunity which fell the way of Ben Nelson. He spun well and found a perfect angle to shoot past Luke Roleston.

Banbridge, though, enjoyed a strong portion of the play of a tight first half to suggest they could cause problems after the break with Philip Brown a regular feature. Bann were level with six minutes remaining in the third quarter via Chris Curry and he went close to putting his side in front soon after.

The pendulum swung back the hosts way for a brief spell with Troy Chambers turning on the after-burners but Banbridge went in front on the counter as the action heated up, Louis Rowe scoring the breakaway goal.

Garvey pressed on and were back on terms at 2-2 with 10 minutes to go when Ollie Kidd fired across goal and his action took a defensive stick to rebound into the backboard. Daniel Nelson and Chambers went extremely close to winning it but they had to settle for a point which sees them drop two points behind new leaders Glenanne at the halfway stage.

YMCA 1 (G Glutz) Corinthian 0
YMCA picked up their first win since the opening day of the season as they won their derby date with Corinthian courtesy of Grant Glutz’s single goal. It lifts them to seventh place in the table and remain two points above the relegation places.

Early on, reds’ player-coach Peter Caruth went close to breaking the deadlock but his volley was sent over the clubhouse by goalkeeper Jakim Bernsden while his side also ran up a series of penalty corners but to no avail in the first half.

YM, meanwhile, started the second half on the up with Harry McCarthy setting up Glutz and he powered home an upright reverse-stick shot for what proved the only goal of the day.

Ross Henderson fizzed a reverse just over as the Y stepped things up significantly before Corinthian replied with a couple of big chances going incomplete. They won further corners in the closing quarter but they were repelled too and YM had a crucial three points to their name.

/by