Harlequins Mens Hockey Match Report

Irish Senior Cup - 3rd Round

Saturday 11th December 2004

Three Rock Rovers 2 Cork Harlequins 3
(h.t. 1-3)

Scorers: R. Gash, D. Eakins, D. Egner

Quins just got the better of Rovers in this very well contested clash in the 3rd round of the Irish Senior Cup. Starting very much on the front foot Richard Gash opened the scoring after just 5 minutes. Paul Lombard picked Richard out with a very incisive pass & Richard beat the onrushing keeper with a shot from the edge of the circle. Rovers equalised within 10 minutes when C. Judd scored from close range following an attack down the Rovers left. Quins lost possession cheaply & failed to close down the danger early enough. After this setback Quins upped the tempo & caused a lot of problems to the Rovers defence. From the 3rd Quins corner of the game Eaks flashed a flick high past the keeper in the 21st minute. Six minutes later some tremendous play from Paul Lombard saw him cut through the Rovers defence & he passed the ball beyond the keeper allowing the inrushing David Egner to push the ball to the goal. Quins had a couple more excellent chances to increase the lead but failed to take advantage.

The second half began with Rovers taking the initiative & pushing forward at every opportunity. Rovers scored their second in the 47th minute from a corner switch which saw C. Judd finish to the goal. Quins had one great opportunity to kill the game but Eaks shot flashed wide having been put through by David Egner. Wesley made a couple of excellent saves to keep Rovers at bay but was helpless as a powerful shot flashed off the crossbar - credit to Conor Harte for the all important touch. Quins managed to successfully run down the clock with some better possession hockey in the last five minutes.

Quins have been drawn at home in the 4th round to Glenanne on the 15th Januay 2005.

W. Bateman, J. Hobbs, P. Chambers, C. Harte, B. Hayes Curtin, M. Black, J. Aherne, J. Black, R. Gash, P. Lombard, D. Eakins, D. Egner, R. Leonard, P. O'Driscoll, R. Hobbs, D. Harte