Men's IHL: Round Three, Saturday round-up

Blakeney's Goal vs. Garvey from Threerockroversones on Vimeo.

Group A
Cookstown 0 Pembroke 0
Pembroke and Cookstown shared the spoils after a scrappy nil-all at Coolnafranky. Ivan Steen missed the most gilt-edged chance, failing to convert a penalty stroke.

Alan Sothern and Gordon Elliott had the better open play chances in the first quarter before the second and third periods were littered by sin-binnings - Stephen Cuddy, Keith Black and Alan Giles doing time.

Iain Hughes made two good saves from Sothern to keep Cookstown in it, though the Tyrone side dominated possession. Giles added a yellow to his collection in last quarter but Cookstown could not take advantage of the ten man situation despite two penalty corners.




Cork Harlequins 1 (Paul Lombard) Annadale 3 (Paul Jackson, Jonny Quigley, Fraser Mills)
Harlequins lost their third successive game in bizarre circumstances as they dominated possession, winning 12 corners and yet were rarely in the game on the scoreboard.

'Dale were two up inside seven minutes with Paul Jackson netting a stunner (pictured bottom left) after Ian Hamilton's faked pass opened an opportunity on his reverse. Jonny Quigley's was less beautiful, flashing a shot across goal but took a lucky deflection off goalkeeper Chris Daunt to deflect into his own goal.

A litany of chances went abegging before Paul Lombard finally got one back from the spot in the 63rd minute but Fraser Mills sucker-punched with a reverse. The results leaves the winner of Instonians and Glenanne to take spot on Sunday afternoon.

Group B
Lisnagarvey 2 (Mark Raphael, Brian Waring) Three Rock Rovers 5 (Tim Hill, Mitch Darling 2, Peter Blakeney, Michael Maguire)
Three Rock bounced back from their Fingal defeat to nab a last-minute bonus point against Lisnagarvey. Timmy Hill got the only goal of the first half scored a tidy opener in the 31st minute of a low-key half.

The second half proved more exciting, Andy McConnell set up Mitch Darling for a tap-in to make it 2-0 before former international Brian Waring cracked in a superb goal to bring the game back to life.

Alan Bothwell went to the bin soon after but Rovers were not deterred as Darling made it 3-1, despite the player deficit. Mark Raphael livened it up once more from a corner second phase with seven minutes remaining.

But two late strikes from Peter Blakeney (pictured, right) and Maguire stole the win and an invaluable late bonus.

Fingal 3 (Mick McGuinness 2, Derek O'Gorman) Banbridge 5 (Ross McCandless 2, Eugene Magee, Simon Magowan, Dane Ward)
Banbridge kept the only 100pc record in the men's side intact with a 5-3 away win at ALSAA. Like the Three Rock game, only one first half goal went in despite the high final score. Ross McCandless got it from a corner won by Simon Magowan.

Eugene Magee added a drag-flick before Mick McGuinness added to his list of goalkeeping victims. This time, Gareth Lennox found his corner shot unstoppable. He potted two to level the game but a minute into the final quarter Magowan got a freak goal that looped over Nigel Grothier after deflecting off a Fingal knee.

McCandless made the gap two once again, Derek O'Gorman slotted home before Dane Ward netted a controversial late corner to deny a Fingal bonus point in the last minute.

Cork C of I 6 (John Bruton 2, John Jermyn 3, Stephen Parker) Monkstown 3 (Gareth Watkins 3)
Monkstown's unlikely chances of progressing are now over though Cork C of I had to wait until the last nine minutes before pulling away.

Jonny Bruton gave his side a fourth-minute lead, which was doubled by John Jermyn at the end of the first quarter.

But Monkstown had no intention of rolling over as skipper Gareth Watkins converted their only two corners of the second quarter to draw level.


Jermyn re-established C of I’s lead after the break, only for Watkins to complete his hat-trick and cancel it out again. But Jermyn matched that feat to put C of I 4-3 up, and late goals from Bruton and Stephen Parker secured the bonus point.



*More pictures from Eoin Tyrell of Cork Harlequins vs Annadale can be see here