Sunday, March 22, 2009

Pembroke reach ISC final: Men's and women's results

Pembroke repeated their All-Ireland Club Championships penalty stroke victory over Glenanne from the 2008 in a bizarre match at Serpentine Avenue to advance to the ISC final, adding yet another chapter to the intense rivalry between the teams.

The sides cannot seem to produce a regular match and while the hockey, at times, may not have matched the heights of prior encounters, the intrigue level certainly did.

Indeed, seven yellow cards - including three for the Glens in a tetchy ten minute period - tells just part of the story of an incredible spectacle.

Maurice Elliott gave the hosts the lead in the opening quarter, scoring from close range at the third phase of a penalty corner after Steven Doran rebuffed both Alan Sothern and Gordon Elliott's efforts.

Much of the rest of the half was played in between the 25s but the temperature began to rise as a few niggly tackles entered the game. Alan Browne was the first to go into the bin, starting a domino effect as the umpires added Paul Fitzpatrick and Graham Shaw to the TD's bench - all receiving yellow for dissent.

The Glens played the period with eight well and limited Pembroke to just a trio of half-chances rather than anything more substantial. Getting the players back onto the pitch also proved problematic. Browne returned as per usual but confusion reigned as Warren McCully only intended Fitzpatrick to return but Shaw followed onto the pitch at the same time.

He was subsequently returned to the bin to serve the remainder of his suspension.

Into the second half, the cards continued to be dished out. Craig Fulton and Alan Sothern both received lengthy bans for bad tackles while Johnny Goulding became the fourth Glenane player to serve time for dissent.

Paddy Conlon (pictured right) had the game's best chance to seal the result, creating an exceptional opening after mugging Graham Shaw on his own 25. His exchange with Justin Sherriff saw the former Irish international create room down the endline before squaring for Conlon who inexplicably missed an open goal. In a tough affair, Sherriff would later take a break as he was left badly cut while Michael O'Connor was another injury victim with a hefty blow to his ankle confining him to the sidelines.

The Glens let three corner chances slip by, the pick of them gloved onto the bar by David Harte before Brendan Parsons was attributed with the equaliser, though Alan Giles' stick had a large part to play in re-directing an edge of the circle past David Harte.

Extra-time brought more cagey play but Pembroke looked the more likely to get the win when David Shaw was binned but a decisive goal was not forthcoming.

Sherriff handed the early initiative to Glenanne, hitting the post with the first stroke but Graham Shaw's effort was blocked by Harte to make things all-square by round four. Round five of penalties produced no winner so sudden death ensued.

Stephen Butler, changing his usual technique of starting side on to the ball, saw his effort kept out by Harte's boot leaving Fulton to complete a truly enthralling win and keep alive hopes of retaining the title.

The 'Broke's final opponents will be made known next Saturday when Cookstown play Annadale in the second semi-final. Cookstown made it a particularly sweet couple of days for the club as they ousted Banbridge at the quarter-final stage with goals from Greg Allen and Ivan Steen. Eugene Magee recovered from a foot injury to get the Bann response.

It makes for a big day at Coolnafranky next Saturday with Cookstown hosting an ISC/IJC double-header.

On the women's side, cup specialists UCD are the only Leinster side remaining in the competition as they added Belfast Harlequins to their list of high profile victims.

Goals from Irish internationals Roisin Flinn and Lisa Jacob augmented Catriona McGlip's effort in a handsome 3-1 win. It sets up an intriguing tie with fellow students, the Ulster Elks who beat Corinthian by a single goal. The pair have never met before in this competition and avoided each other in this year's Intervarsities, too, so both go into unknown territory.

Railway Union will now look to focus on the leagues as they dropped out of the running for a cup for the second time in four days as Ballymoney's home strength proved too much, taking the honours 5-2. A first Leinster league title now becomes the major focus.

Pegasus, meanwhile, were too strong for Lurgan and won 3-0 courtesy of Suzanne Beaney's hat-trick.

Men’s Irish Senior Cup
Semi Final:
Pembroke Wanderers 1 (Maurice Elliott) Glenanne 1 (Brendan Parsons) Pembroke win 5-4 on strokes
Quarter Final: Cookstown 2 (Greg Allen, Ivan Steen) Banbridge 1 (Eugene Magee)

ESB Irish Senior Cup - Quarter Finals
Lurgan 0 Pegasus 3 (Suzanne Beaney 3); Ballymoney 5 (Nikki Parke 2, Lyndsey McVicker, Bridget Cleland 2) Railway Union 2 (Kate Dillon, Jean McDonnell); Ulster Elks 1 (Caroline Smith) Corinthian 0; Belfast HQ 1 (Jenna Watt) UCD 3 (Catriona McGlip, Roisin Flinn, Lisa Jacob)
Semi Final draw: Pegasus v Ballymoney; UCD v Ulster Elks



* For some great pictures of the action taken by Adrian Boehm, click here and from Rob O'Connor, click here

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

ucd v pegasus final - ucd to win - they are a great cup side

Anonymous said...

whats the chances of a cookstown v pembroke isc final and a cookstown v pembroke ijc final.

Anonymous said...

Very significant that a certain Pembroke player did not show up despite name on match sheet.
Watch this space.

Anonymous said...

who?

Anonymous said...

Thought Glenanne had Pembroke on strokes after holding out for so long with players in the sin bin.

Fair play to Pembroke though, the have some hold over Glenanne at the moment, cannot recall the last time Glens beat them in a big game.

Anonymous said...

Pembroke have beaten Glenanne 5 times in the last 4 years in All-Ireland competition. On 4 of those occasions it was a knockout game.

So much for a rivalry...

Anonymous said...

Based on the Photos who was there for Pembroke:

fulton
elliot
elliot
sherriff
gormley
harte
harte
loughrey
wiggy
giles
lewis
southern

Were all there..

Conlon I count missing..

Then any randomers on the bench...

Anonymous said...

No theres a picture of Conlon in the article.

Anonymous said...

So much for a rivalry...

This is a ridiculous comment, pembroke have never had it easy against glenanne,except for one 7.2 thrashing..
And as for one player missing, it seems he was at the game, as a supporter and not a player due to a rule which says only bonified members of a team may play in such irish competitions, not player who arrive in new year.

Is he here on year spell for college?

Anonymous said...

Oh Railers...

Anonymous said...

where is Conlon is the sets? which set is he in?

Anonymous said...

"Erasmus"

noun
Dutch humanist and theologian who was the leading Renaissance scholar of northern Europe; although his criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Reformation, he opposed violence and condemned Martin Luther (1466-1536)

Anonymous said...

As a neutral at the PW Glens game, I spent a lot of it laughing to myself by something that has been up on this blog only recently. Surrounded by both PW and Glens fans, the difference in opinions on who should be sent off for dissent was massive. In the ask Ray section, we were asked are we ready to show the correct levels of respect to umpires, and it was highly evident that memebers of our leading teams are not. Example is set from there, and think the umpires did the right thing as I'm sure once you have 1 in the bin, it makes it much harder to send a 2nd, and a 3rd!!!

So, the blog is on the mind of supporters while they watch the game, now it's got to spread to the players.

Anonymous said...

Well done UCD, maybe you will finally be given the respect you deserve for the talent on the team. Good luck on Saturday!

Anonymous said...

Please look up results in LB Blue book and see how close both clubs are in winning LB and Irish Comp.
Starting 2000-1 Senior League:Glens 3 wins,PWds.3 wins.Senior Cup.Glens 4 wins.PWds.3 wins.
Last sats.game was deceided on P/S.Could have gone anyway.
I would like to remind blogger Mach 24 1.00pm that the days of touching the forelock are long gone in this country.