Men's Setanta Trophy: Ireland v Great Britain

Ireland pushed Great Britain close but could not force a late equaliser at Belfield. The pair will cross sticks again tomorrow afternoon, as this match was effectively turned into a dead-rubber when Canada and Pakistan drew 2-2 to seal their final places.

The Irish once again went into the lead with a brilliant goal. It was all down to Eugene Magee's individual brilliance, spinning beautifully on the 25 before driving through three tackles. He fired a reverse across the goal into the path of the sliding Michael Watt for a stunning 1-0 lead.

But GB hit the front with seven minutes of that 15th minute opener, Glenn Kirkham sweeping in a rebound and Barry Middleton deflecting in a drag-flick.

They could have gone further ahead soon after from the penalty spot but, for a third successive Irish game, it went unconverted. But they only had to wait until the 27th minute for Richie Mantell to score, via an Irish defender's stick for a 3-1 half-time lead, despite two good Mitch Darling shots.

The second half proved a tighter affair with Magee proving his worth with excellent 3D skills while Simon Mantell was proving a prominent force in the GB attack. The British kept possession for long periods and were unlucky when Ashley Jackson hit the bar.

Darling snapped up a sharp chance for 3-2 with six minutes left but Ireland could not create another real threat to equalise but will get another chance tomorrow at 2pm.

Dave Passmore, though, will hope performance improves saying “This was a sloppy performance, we couldn’t keep possession of the ball and the scoreline did not reflect the superiority of Great Britain ’s performance.”

Pakistan and their delightfully rowdy set of supporters will take on Canada in the final at 4.30pm, hoping to change the result from today. All the games came in a 15 minute period in the second half, Rehan Butt opening the scoring before Mark Pearson equalised. Butt made it 2-1 before Rob Short made the final score 2-2.