Harlequins Mens Hockey Match Report

Waterford 1 - 2 Harlequins(B)

Munster Division 1

Saturday 09th April 2005

Scorers: K Deasy, D Gash

The 2nds finished off their league campaign this season with a hard-fought win over Waterford. Even though the game was academic for Waterford, we needed at least a point from the game to secure 3rd place in Division 1. However due to a number of reasons, only 4 of the Junior cup squad were available for the game, so the 3rds and 4ths teams were raided to fill the remaining positions!

Quins started well, but were rocked after only 5 minutes when Steve Teap was given a yellow card. Amazingly, the umpire kept him off the pitch for over 15 minutes and during this time, Waterford scored a sloppy goal from a short corner which was deflected into the goal by a combination of Quins players. But finally when Steve was brought back onto the pitch, we came back into the game and Dickie Barrett should really have scored when a short corner broke to him only 6 metres out, but he somehow shot wide. But we did equalise when a David Gash overhead pass gave Killian Deasy a chance to shoot. Even though the shot was poorly hit, the goalkeeper mad a mess of it and the sides were level.

The second half was an even affair, with Waterford having more possesion but not having too many chances. We were struggling at times to get our forwards into the game but with 10 minutes to go, a good break by Phil O'Driscoll led to free-hit on the edge of the circle. Phil's free hit evaded all the Waterford defenders and David Gash delflected the ball in for the winning goal.

Waterford had a couple of chances to equalise, but we held out for great win and in doing so, secured 3rd position in the league behind or own first team and Church of Ireland firsts. Great credit on the day was due to the players brought up from the 3rds and 4ths, who all contributed to the victory.

Team: Chris Daunt, Dan Hobbs, Phil O'Driscoll, William Daunt, Moray Russell, Killian Deasy, Steve Teap, David Gash, Stuart Egner, Eoghan Kenneddy, Dickie Barratt.