Saturday, December 19, 2009

Corinthian spirit earns four-point lead

Men's Division One:
Corinthian 5 (Darren Kimfley 2, Dan Williams, Chris Pelow, Davy Carson) Monkstown 3 (Andy Ewington, Brian Groves, Matt Fairweather)
In Pembroke's absence, Corinthian built up a four point lead at the top of division one over the Christmas break as they came from a 2-1 deficit to zip past Monkstown in the second half at Whitechurch today. Darren Kimfley's reverse-stick belter opened the scoring but Andy Ewington's drag-flick and Brian Groves' impressive drive after intercepting on halfway swapped the lead in Town's favour.

Dan Williams' touched in to level at 2-2 from what looked a dangerously raised ball in. The goal stood, though, and when Chris Pelow dragged in a corner following a Brian Doherty swivel. A corner switch fell Davy Carson's way to extend the lead to 4-2 with the first goal of the second half.

Kimfley added his second after a bout of pinball between the striker and Dave Fitzgerald but Matt Fairweather scored corner on the final whistle for 5-3.

Three Rock Rovers 0 Fingal 2 (Gary Sharman, Paddy Gahan)
Two second half goals saw Fingal pick up their biggest win of the season as Three Rock's IHL hopes took a dent while the northside club moved clear of the relegation zone. Tom Manning was in inspired form in the first period, creating two clear chances for Paddy Gahan which went unfinished. Mick Maguire hit the inside of both posts with one shot midway through the first half but it was the extent of their major chances. A defensive howler gifted Gary Sharman a chance at the top of the circle to bang in the opener. And Gahan rolled in the second goal when set free from Derek O'Gorman to seal the three points.

YMCA 3 (Andy Walker, Jacob Webber, Rob Whelan) Glenanne 3 (Shane O'Donoghue, Mick McGuinness, Stephen Butler)
YM led twice but eventually fought back to earn a vital point in the last ten minutes against Glenanne which may be crucial in the race for IHL placings. Andy Walker scored the only goal of the first half following a good move which transferred the ball through Richie Pedreschi and David Robinson down the right flank before Walker finished well.

Shane O'Donoghue's corner switch levelled in the second period but Jacob Webber's penalty stroke restored the YM lead only for Mick McGuinness' brilliant strike made it equal for a second time when he cracked into the top left corner. Stephen Butler's stroke gave the Glens the lead for the first time when Johnyn Goulding was pushed at close range. But, seven minutes from time, Rob Whelan finished off another fine right-wing move, flicking to the net to grab the draw.

Clontarf 1 (Richard Forrest) Railway Union 2 (Mark English, Paul O'Brien)
Railway picked up a crucial win over Clontarf to leave the Bulls isolated at the bottom of the table as they built a 2-0 lead and kept the Mount Temple hosts at bay despite a concerted second half fight-back. Mark English lashed in a half-volley after Peter English whipped up a storm with a long overhead. Kevin O'Brien set up the second forging his way into the 25 before finding Dave McCarthy. His shot from the right wing might have been missing the goal but Paul O'Brien was on hand to tap in. Clontarf pulled one back early in the second half from a corner switch which Richie Forrest finished off. Stephen O'Keeffe pulled off a couple of saves and five Clontarf corners went a begging as Railway stayed clear.

* For more of Adrian Boehm's photos from Three Rock Rovers vs Fingal, click here. For Deryck Vincent's photos of YMCA II vs Glenanne II, click here

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

does this seal clotarf's fate? They have UCD to come to Mount Temple in 2010 but they've played Railway twice now, losing both.

Impressive results for YM and fingal today.

Anonymous said...

Let's make a compliment to the umpires, especially to Mr. Bolger. The way he umpired YM-Glens was great. No cards, but lots of talking to players during the match and after the match he is always there to have a chat.

This man deserves a big compliment!

Anonymous said...

didnt trr score from a short against fingal??

Anonymous said...

Watching chc vs. Pembroke and monkstown games, chc should be very proud of Murray, Murphy, Cronje and Miskys.. Those 4 we're without doubt the strongest 4 players chc had to offer over the two games.

I feel after watching the two games they are the reason for the 6 points.

Chc for the league.

Anonymous said...

Fingal back on form!!

Anonymous said...

I thought both Bolger and Groves had good games yesterday. Credit were credit is due. Its good to pay compliments to good umpiring instead of the usual critisisim they receive. Its great to see a game flow while at the same time be well controlled. Well done lads.

Anonymous said...

to say Corinthians 2nd was "fortutious" would be kind. It changed the game in Corinthians favour and Monkstown never really recovered from it. Shame because it was a good game and very close and that ruined it.

Anonymous said...

Go on the Reds. CHC for the League, no doubt.

Anonymous said...

To 3.49 was it only the second CHC goal that was the turning point . Not the 3rd, 4th or 5th ?

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but pembroke will win the league with games in hand. Chc aren't strong enough to win the league this year. Very lucky with the position they are in now. If they can't even qualify for the indoor with there strongest team how will they win the outdoor league??!!

Anonymous said...

what happened to Rovers on Saturday? I beleive that Fingal should of won by more!

Anonymous said...

we were not very good saturday. it was an off day for us where we didnt manage to get going. Credit to Fingal though..they have some very good players and will take points off others

Anonymous said...

The Fox fails to find the net again, is he filling up on turkey already!?!?

Anonymous said...

Chc arent strong enough to win the league yet they're top and people keep saying they'll drop points but they haven't yet. Great to see someone else up there for a change and i hope it all goes well for them. Darley and Cronje seem to have the old magic touch at the moment anyway. in spite of a dodgy 2nd goal they deserved to beat us on Sat and best of luck to them for the rest of the season.

monkstown player

Anonymous said...

Why is it you only allow people to make positive comments towards umpires stephen,but when people question some umpires and their continuos strange decisions week in week out even though they are "internationally recognised" and believed to have what it takes to umpire at the highest level,you don't allow these comments to be seen?

Stephen Findlater said...

To December 21, 2009 5:11 PM

From an early stage in this site's genesis, it became apparent there was little value in making the comments a forum for complaints about umpire's decisions. The prevailing mood was that anonymous comments did little to improve umpiring standards whilst would serve as an active deterrent towards people taking up the whistle.

Anonymous said...

just had a look at the photo's from the TRR game, what was Ian Dowling doing at the game?

Anonymous said...

chc did not have there strongest team in the indoor. no excuse though. bad luck when it comes down to goal difference i suppose.

Stephen Findlater said...

December 21, 2009 5:45 PM

Dowling, as a Kilkenny man, is mates with a couple of the Fingal lads.

Anonymous said...

true and all as that is..it's rumoured ian dowling is about to be signed by fingal actually in a swop deal with munster. Munster are getting David Bane who will take up a role as backs coach

Anonymous said...

CHC-Town game...2nd goal...
Well, it was a good game, with clear chances from both sides. Reds were stronger and they won a game by 3 goals. 2nd goal would say very BRAVE!! umpiring from this young lad,Polish i think, very good goal,no problemss at all, as many of this you can see to be scored around a world by top teams and players on high profile games so dont really understand critisisim.

Neutral

Anonymous said...

It looks like curtains for clontarf as apart from the UCD game you cant see too many opportunities to pick up points. A pity though as they have tried to play good hockey unlike most promoted teams that just pack defence.

Anonymous said...

Fingal have maybe one away game left. The rest eir games are at home....rule them out at your peril...they can play and will definately cause a few upsets on the beach........Alec

Anonymous said...

The only way to look at the league positions at present due to the differences in games played is on points dropped.In that scenario pembroke have dropped 3 and both glennane and cotinthians 5 each.
While it is clearly all to play for and chc have points in the bag pembroke are in pole position and have probably the best squad ever seen in Leinster hockey.
I wouldnt rule out glennane either as they still have that tenacity that others do not.
So it looks like a very interesting battle fot the top 3 places a another battle betyween 4 clubs for 4th and 5th place and IHL qualification.