Harlequins Mens Hockey Match Report

Harlequins(B) 3 - Railway Union (B) 1
(h.t. 2-0)

Irish Junior Cup (Semi-Final)

Saturday 12th February 2005

Scorers: C. Harte, P. O'Driscoll, K. Deasy

Quins qualified for the IJC final on April 2nd with an excellent performance against a very gallant Railway Union side. Conor Harte opened the scoring after 9 minutes when his powerful reverse stick strike from the top of the circle comprehensively beat the Railway keeper. Conor's shot came at the end of a movement involving Philip McLaughlin & David Lombard. Philip McLaughlin picked up the ball it the Quins half & with great skill created space to find David Lombard. David's incisive pass picked out Conor & the end result was a superb goal. Quins had the better of the exchanges in the first half but it appeared that they wouldn't increase their lead due to some tremendous last ditch defending by Railway. Two goal bound flicks from corners (with the keeper beaten) were incredibly touched to safety by the same defender. However, in the last moments of the first half Quins produced another well structured passing movement from deep in their own half & the ball reached David Deady around the penalty spot. As Dave was just about to sweep the ball to the goal, he was tackled from behind & the umpire awarded a stroke. Philip O'Driscoll displaying great coolness calmly scored from the penalty spot.

Ten minutes into the second half & with Railway pushing forward Quins increased the lead to three. Philip Chambers won the ball deep in defence & picked out Paul Dawson with a tremendous pass. Paul's first touch killed the ball dead & he immediately attacked the circle. He drew the last remaining defender & played Killian Deasy in on goal. Killian scored from close range to make it 3 nil. Railway really pushed forward at this stage but couldn't find a way past the inspired Chris Daunt in the Quins goal. 12 minutes from time Railway did make a break through with a clinical finish from a slick corner switch. Quins had some more chances to score on the break & a David Lombard shot was miraculously deflected over the crossbar by a defender after David had rounded the keeper.

All in all this was a tremendous effort by the whole squad who now look forward to the IJC final on the 2nd April in UCD.

Squad: C. Daunt, R. Hobbs, P. Chambers, P. O'Driscoll, L. d'Alton, C. Harte, D. Lombard, R. Leonard, P. Dawson, K. Deasy, P. McLaughlin, I. Bateman, D. Deady, S. Teap, G. Todd, D. Harte