Glens and Pembroke emerge with records intact

Men's Division One round-up:
Monkstown 5 (Andy Ewington 2, Gareth Watkins 2, Andrew Ward) Clontarf 2 (Tom Noonan, Andrew Poynter)
Another hugh scoring affair for the Town but this time they came out on the right end of the result as four second half goals took the points at Rathdown. The Bulls made the perfect start when Mukhtar Ahmed drove into the circle and teed up Tom Noonan’s deflection. But an Andy Ewington pearler of a drag-flick soon after levelled the game. Ewington doubled the dose early in the second half and Gareth Watkins made it 3-1 soon after.

But Clontarf were back in the game when Andrew Poynter applied a deft touch to a beautifully worked corner to put the game in the balance at 3-2. Andrew Ward, however, rebounded almost instantly to kill the tie off and Watkins completed the victory.

Three Rock Rovers 0 Glenanne 2 (Stephen Butler 2)
A goal in each half from Stephen Butler gave Glenanne deserved victory at Grange Road as Three Rock’s 100pc record was broken. It leaves pre-league favourites the sole sides left with perfect records, an ominous sign for the rest of the table.

Butler scored a deflected corner in the first half before shooting home from the penalty spot in the second as Rovers’ discipline cost them, reduced three times to ten men for yellow card offences. They also have concerns to the fitness of Peter Blakeney who went off after five minutes and Ali Haughton was forced off with an ailment in the second half.

YMCA 1 (Jacob Webber) Pembroke 2 (Tim Lewis, Alan Giles)
YM broke Pembroke’s clean-sheet for the season and almost went one better late on by salvaging a point but Jacob Webber’s drag-flick was saved in supreme fashion by David Harte in the endgame of a scrappy affair. Webber had given the Y the lead from a corner but Tim Lewis’ reverse-stick effort and Alan Giles’ turnover goal, assisted by Alan Sothern turned the lead around, deflecting home in mid-air.

Iain Walker and Harte both had impressive games, the former keeping out several corner efforts while Gordon Elliott (dissent) and Geoff Walker (bad tackle) were both sin-binned. Ronan Gormley sat out the game with a bug.

UCD 3 (Tim Hill, Ben Grogan, Robbie McFarlane) Corinthian 6 (Davy Carson 2, Brian Doherty, Glenn Holmes, Rowland Rixon-Fuller, Dan Williams)
Corinthian bounced back from last week’s home defeat to pick up all three points at the National Hockey Stadium, scoring two thirds of the nine goals of a lively affair. Tim Hill cancelled out an early lead from a slick right-wing move for the students but from there, the reds never looked back.

They extended the lead to 4-1 before Ben Grogan pulled one back on the stroke of half-time but two further goals extended the led to 6-2 before a late Robbie McFarlane effort reined in the margin.

Rowland Rixon-Fuller’s goal was the pick of the bunch, deflecting in Glenn Holmes’ cross while Brian Doherty struck a fine drag-flick to add to his ever-growing collection. Davy Carson netted twice.

Fingal 4 (Chris Neville 2, Paddy Gahan, Adrian Sweeney) Railway Union 0
Fingal cruised to victory at ALSAA to continue their mini-revival since two losses on the spin began the campaign. Chris Neville was the architect in chief. He was on hand to score the first after Stephen O’Keefe’s innovative efforts at clearing the ball went awry. Tom Manning stole the ball, played in Lloyd Pearson who assisted Neville for the only goal of the first half. Paddy Gahan slipped the second one home after the interval before a great Adrian Sweeney spin and shot at the top of the D all but killed the game. Neville’s smart second on the spin completed the rout.

* For Adrian Boehm's pics from TRR vs Glenanne, click here