Harlequins Mens Hockey Match Report

Church Of Ireland 'B' 3-3 Harlequins 'B'

Charity Cup - League Stage

Sunday 17th April 2005

Scorers: P. McLaughlin 2, S. Egner

It was honours even in Garryduff on Sunday afternoon after an entertaining game of hockey. With 22 goals from 3 previous games between the teams this year, this was never going to be boring game. Quins went into the game with a below strength team, with a number of players playing their second game of the day.

The first 15 minutes of the game were fairly even, but midway through the half, CI opened the scoring from play. Worse was to follow when they then scored from a penalty corner. It was a poor goal to concede and we were in disarray at the half-time break.

The game changed completely at the start of the second half, when Quins cam right back into the game. With CI playing 4 in midfield, Quins took control and from our 3rd penalty corner, a straight shot from Killian Deasy was deflected to the net by Philip McLaughlin. It was a case of pure robbery from Locky, as the ball was just about to cross the line unaided!!

Within 5 minutes Locky had scored his second, when after some good passing he flicked the ball to the corner from 8 yards. It was all Quins then and only some poor control around the goal and some poor final passes stopped us taking the lead. However on a CI break, our defenders were caught in possession (allied with some dubious umpiring), and CI scored their 3rd goal. From here it was end to end play, with chances at both ends. But with time up on the clock (I could hear his alarm beeping!), Stuart Egner found a couple of inches of space in the circle and without even a look at the goal, he finished crisply to the corner! So, 2 points apiece which might not be enough for either team to progress to the final.

Squad: C Daunt, R Hobbs, P O'Driscoll, B Hayes-Curtin, M Russell, K Deasy, R Leonard, P McLaughlin, K Cullinane, P Dawson, S Egner, D Gash.