Saturday, December 12, 2009

Sothern strike gives Pembroke edge

Men's Division One
Pembroke 3 (Alan Sothern 2, Alan Giles) Glenanne 2 (Stephen Butler 2)
First blood to Pembroke as Alan Sothern got a touch to Mick O'Connor's amazing reverse-stick cross to win the showdown between the province's two leading lights. Three more points on the board but the significance of Glenanne's unplayed back matches mean the Tallaght club could be a massive 15 points behind the reigning champions when next they take the field.

As it was, the goal came against the run of play as Pembroke made the best of their chances while Glenanne held sway in possession and territory stakes but missed the vital incisions.

The hosts's skipper Alan Giles began the scoring, finishing off a great move initiated by Andy McConnell. Maurice Elliott led slide two decent  chances as Pembroke were in the early ascendancy, one saved by Stephen Butler and the next by Stephen Doran. But the Glens grew back into the game with two Butler drags going close, the latter rebounding to Johnny Goulding but David Harte saved well.

They got on terms, though, on half-time from a third corner as Butler bashed in. It came in the wake of Adam Pritchard's sin-binning as a loose ball ran behind him and Alan Lewis zipped in and took a hefty tackle just inside the 25. And Ireland's all-time top scorer made it 1-1 at the break as both sides harrangued the umpires over various perceived injustices on the walk to the dug-outs.

Alan Sothern dragged in a corner in the second half to restore the 2-1 lead before Ronan Gormley hit a post . But the next ten minutes was all Glenanne with Butler - the game's dominant force - scoring a corner of his own. No further goals in a niggly affair, however, left the Glens open for the sucker-punch and it came when Mick O'Connor fired an absolutely brilliant reverse-stick cross which left Sothern the opportunity he lapped up to take an eighth successive league win.

Three Rock Rovers 11 (Peter Blakeney 4, Pierre de Voux 2, Garry Ringwood 2, Sven Galjaardt, Patrick Shanahan, Pieter Steins-Bisschop) Clontarf 2 (Luke Hayden, Tom Noonan)
Peter Blakeney inspired Three Rock to their most clinical performance of the season to bring his tally to six in the two games since returning from injury. He whipped in a spectacular reverse with the first shot of the game, set up by Sven Galjaardt's pin-point cross. He doubled up soon after, driving past three tackles before bumping a forehand shot in. Luke Hayden finished off Tom Noonan's great work for 2-1 but Blakeney served up his hat-trick in the 19th minute, found by Mick Maguire's reverse-stick cross - 3-1 at half-time.

The lead was stretched to 7-1 by Pierre de Voux, Sven Galjaardt and Patrick Shanahan's delightful individual effort before Noonan got one back. But Garry Ringwood's late double - one from the spot - and Pieter Steins-Bisschop got his first for the club completed the scoring.

Corinthian 5 (Barry Glavey 2, Darren Kimfley, Brian Doherty, Chris Pelow) Railway Union 4 (Kevin Wong, David McCarthy, Peter English, Paul O'Brien)
Corinthian maintain their place in second place with a thrill-a-minute tie against Railway Union of ever-changing dimensions. The reds looked well set at 2-0, bursting into gear via Barry Glavey and Darren Kimfley, the latter rounding the Railway keeper to put his side in the box seat. Glavey would later prove the hero with a stunning fifth for Corinthian, reversing into the goal's stanchion - the single goal to separate the sides.

But Railway showed they have the nous to unlock the reds defence in their 3-3 draw earlier this term and were back in the game in the simplest of fashions when Corinthian failed to deal with a lengthy overhead. The ball rebounded Kevin Wong's way and the teenager held his composure to half-volley his first division one goal. David McCarthy repeated that feat soon after a decent move saw him unmarked in the circle.

Corinthian re-established their lead when Brian Doherty dragged in on the half-time whistle for 3-2. Peter English returned the favour to tie at 3-3 before Pelow and Glavey strung out a 5-3 advantage. Kevin O'Brien and Andrew Holmes both spent time in the bin but Railway were not done and Paul O'Brien completed a move for 5-4. And a draw was inches away on the final hooter penalty corner. The first effort was blocked but Mark English smashed a shot which Peter Yeates came within inches of touching in against his former club.

YMCA 2 (Mikey Fry, Jacob Webber) Fingal 1 (Stephen Thompson)
YM moved into a tie for fifth spot as they held off Fingal's late charge to stay in the mix for an IHL place in 2010/11. They dominated the early proceedings as the northsiders struggled to deal with a low-lying sun at Alexandra College. The Y flew out of the blocks, Mikey Fry scoring from a breaking ball in the circle. It was the sole reward, though, for their early endeavour as the airport club developed into the game with chances going each way by the half's end.

Eamon Bane's miscue from inches out should have had Fingal on terms after the break but a Jacob Webber drag-flick created a significant 2-0 wedge between the teams. Paddy Gahan went close before Stephen Thompson scored from second phase penalty corner in the 61st minute. But, despite late pressure, YM held on for their second home league win of the season.

* For Adrian Boehm's photos of Pembroke vs Glenanne, click here while photos from Three Rock Rovers vs Clontarf, click here

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are the Glens not being made get their back matches out of the way?
The branch shouldn't let them away with it.

Anonymous said...

thats a great story altogether!!! put it in your book!!!

Anonymous said...

Get away with what???.It takes TWO teams to arrange matches.ALL Glens matches have been re-fixed.So dont be worrying your little head.

Anonymous said...

All that seperates Pembroke and Glenanne is the standard of their Goalkeeper.

It has been a huge factor for Pembroke for years.

Anonymous said...

10.52

I could not agree more. The reason they won the Irish Senior Cup semi final and Irish Hockey League final was David Harte.

Anonymous said...

Showers League Update..

After another cracking performance TRR hold on to top spot..Im sure the competition will start to hot up especially with it getting colder..

Updated League
1. TRR
2. Corinthians
3. Fingal
4. Pembroke
5. Clontarf
6. Ymca
7. Railway
8. Ucd
9. Glenanne
10. Monkstown

Anonymous said...

are you talking aboout YM's showers in sandymount or Milltown...the ones in Milltown shouldnt be that high up the table. Corinthians up far too high

Anonymous said...

TRR had a bad performance last sunday week in the Railway cup v's Fingal. The showers were cold! They deserve to drop a place for that performance.

Anonymous said...

Fox in the box didnt score... Poor guy was more like road kill only playing 10 minutes!!

Anonymous said...

can the fixtures committee explain why Glennane were given a 3 week break and thus the back log without insisting on the back games being played before Christmas.
And also why all players in div1 3 and 6 are expected to play on Jan. 2nd in the middle of the normal Christmas break.Is there a connection? If there is then it is a sick joke and most certainly anti family and anti social.

Anonymous said...

Was impressed with UCD showers... directional nozzle control... good temperature and they even had privacy screens for an intimate 6 to a room setting!!!

Pity about the push-button though.

Anonymous said...

have to agree with the ucd comment its an absolute disgace that they find them selves in play off relegation showers position. defenitely deserve an Ihl place for their temperature and nozzle direction. the gap at the top is getting smaller

Anonymous said...

the reason UCD are at the bottom is due to the sheer lack of shower heads per changing room. More is always better.

Anonymous said...

gotta say lads, congrats to TRR they were top notch on sat, really showed their class. They're definitely gonna be there or therabouts come the end of the season. Kept the heat on throughout, their pressure at times was immense, clontarf didnt know what hit them.

and they've got seats in there as well, deffo the best shower iv had all season. mite head up there before work, they were that good.

werent too bad on the pitch either...

Anonymous said...

Impressed with ucd showers. Would agree that they lack numbers but defo have enough to make it into the IHL places. Watch this space, they're on the way up...

Anonymous said...

Even The Fox has his bad weekends. He will bounce back to snaffle a few goals next weekend then enjoy his turkey over Christmas...

Anonymous said...

I hear he loves his indoor!

Anonymous said...

I think railway were very unlucky not to get a 5-5 draw or even the win. It was a good diving save by the chc keeper in the last passage of play. Thought Darren was very good for chc. He's a different class. He could be the reason they win things this year. He's an out and out goal scorer. Something they've missed for the last few seasons.

I disagree, the chc showers should be top of the list, temp was lovely throughout the full shower.

Anonymous said...

2.38 - this keeps being brought up but will be sorted, check the Leinster website; glens using the ISC bye to play three back games by Jan 17th.

As for Jan 2nd, has happened lots of times in the past so is not part of a 'normal winter break' as you put it. I don't agree with it but it is always the same. I remember the U21 final was always on New years day in the past.

seems odd especially as div 1/3 have sweet f'all matches left this season compared to other years.

Anonymous said...

Full first and second team fixture list on January 2nd - when the leagues are finished by March 20th? Know that there is Irish stuff as well but this is crazy. Will there even be a full schedule of umpires? The branch needs to look at priorities. An amateur game should have a break at that time.

Anonymous said...

checked the last 6 years start up after the new year and no leaguegames have been played as early as Jan 2nd.It is grossly unfair to players coaches and umpires not to have a Christmas/new year break.
It is unsocial and anti family in an amateur game.

Anonymous said...

To be totally pedantic about this, the last time January 2nd fell on a Saturday was 1999 - a full set of fixtures was played. YM had to fly over their German coach, Oliver, on New Year's Day.

Anonymous said...

the game has moved on considerably since 1999 and many clubs now have players from parts of IRL other than Dublin as well as overseas players all of which has improved the standard of the league here.
In any event my understanding is that some clubs got permission to play Jan2nd fixtures on a different date while other clubs have been refused.Now that begs a lot of questions as to what exactly is going on regarding fixtures for jan2nd.

Anonymous said...

Rovers, YM, Monkstown and UCD wish all players having to play on the 2nd January a merry Xmas and a very sober New Year !!!!!!!!!!!!!! no slacking off on the training lads

Anonymous said...

more head in the sand from the branch - question was raised at the agm in September. Promises to look at it. Nothin done at all. How far out of touch are the committees with what people really want?