In a strong physical contest, Ireland's men lost 3-2 to Wales in the first of two full internationals in Cardiff this weekend.
The home side shaded the opening half, hitting the bar in the 18th minute before opening their account in the 34th minute with a corner from Huw Jones - initially disallowed but awarded after consultation between the umpires.
Early in the second period, Mikey Watt and Andy McConnell combined for Jason Lynch to spin neatly and ping in a reverse into the corner of the net for 1-1. Lynch's second, coming four minutes into the half, was a superb effort, dribbling past a defender before flicking over the onrushing keeper. But two late Olly Cooper goals swung the game back into Welsh hands.
Speaking about the match, manager Peter Jackson said "This was a good peformance by Ireland considering the youthfulness of the squad and the short amount of time they have trained together, it was a good team performance and we look forward to tomorrow's match."
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8 comments:
That is shocking...Against Wales!!!
How do they expect to qualify for 2012? Shoud be beating Wales even with a youthful side
I must agree with "anonymous" - these results are just not good enough.
Ireland are ranked 18th in the World, Wales are ranked 29th.
In the same way any of the top 7 nations would expect to beat Ireland with their "A" side, Ireland "A" should also be beating Wales... not drawing and losing.
Well done to the new caps David Ames and Keith Black delighted for you
the redarmy!
in 2005 the national team scored a late equaliser to draw with Wales in the Europeans. This was a full side and the rankings have not changed since then. Give the guys a chance. Who do you think we are. We are still a developing team and the fact the the squad was very young is of course a valid excuse. Only 3 players playing competed in the olympic qualifier, 2 of whom are still very young!
I feel we are making progress!
I'm all for open discussion and debate... but let's at least get the basic facts right to begin with before spouting off... that's not too much to ask!!!
Anonymous is blatantly incorrect to say the rankings have remained the same since 2005. Unless of course he/she has been in hibernation and hasn't witnessed any of the Irish performances at the intervening tournaments
In 2005 Ireland were ranked 22 and Wales joint 23
http://www.sheetudeep.com/sports/hockey/menranking.pdf
A draw in the Europeans back then is a reasonable result considering the rankings at the time.
Since then however, we have made fantastic improvements and risen up the rankings as a result and Wales have gone in the other direction.
In support of the other anonymous, who actually has the correct facts, I don't think it's acceptable, 3-4 years down the line and 11 places higher in the world rankings to be satisified with these results... even accepting it was an Ireland "A" team.
I think we are justified in expecting better!!
Just a couple of things, should we read that much into this set of results?
1)the coach stepped down the day before
2)assistant coach not present
3)two debutants - David Ames and Keith Black
is expectation a bit too high from this set of players in the circumstances against what was full enough welsh squad?
ok then Queso. Apologis for that. How about when the team lost in the celtic cup just before the team travelled to the europeans in 2007. Full team( only andy barbour+j Black missing)...and they LOST that. Relay the point that only 3 of the players who just played in Wales went to olympic qualifier...and only one went to the previous tournament- Europeans in August 2007.
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