Harlequins Mens Hockey Match Report

Bangor(2) 1 - Harlequins (2) 3

Irish Junior Cup (Round 1)

Saturday 13th November 2004

Scorers: P. O'Driscoll 3 (1 pen)

After a long trip north, the 2nds had a good win against Bangor on Saturday. Without a number of players, we were still much stronger than a Bangor side that are currently second in the Ulster Junior league

After a rather quiet start, where Bangor had slightly the better of the opening 10 minutes, Quins got the opening goal after 15 minutes. From our first penalty corner, Philip O'Driscoll had low drag-flick to the goalies stick side, which beat him easily. Soon after, Bangor nearly equalised, but they had a shot come back off the post and the ball was cleared.

Bangor put some pressure on our goal up to half-time, but they found Chris Daunt (Skinty) in fine form. One double save was particularily demoralising for the northern team. All through this, Quins had numerous breaks which should have yielded another goal. One ball was taken off the line and players should have done better in good shooting positions!

The second half continued in much the same vein as the first, with the 2nds being the stronger team, but struggling to create clear chances and when doing so, struggling to finish. Bangor still couldn't find a way past Skinty and when Phil O'D scored an identical penalty corner mid-way through the second half, the tie looked over. However, after some very slack defending, Bangor eventually scored with 7 minutes to go and it looked as if there could be a tight finish to the game. But up stepped Phil O'D, who with his 3rd identical corner earned a penalty stroke, which he duly dispatched for his hat-trick.

So, Quins emerged victors. With 3 goals from 3 short corners awarded and our goalkeeper being our best player, it might seem that we were lucky, but nobody there could deny that we were by far the better team. However a big improvement will be needed for the visit of the holders Annadale 2nds, if we are to go on in the Cup.

Chris Daunt, Rob Hobbs, Stuart Egner, Lee d'Alton, Philip O'Driscoll, David Lombard, Richard Leonard, David Deady, Killian Deasy, Philip McLaughlin, Paul Dawson, Moray Russell, Kevin Cullinane, Graham Todd.