Sunday, February 7, 2010

Sothern guides Pembroke to Indoor crown

Pembroke claimed the Tony Byrne Cup for the second time in their history as they bounced back from a 1-0 deficit to score the only goals of the second half to race to victory at the NBA this evening.

Their array of international outdoor stars grew into the tournament game by game, recovering from an earlier 6-0 loss to Three Rock in the preliminary stages of the competition, to out-gun the reigning champions.

Their sharper edge in front of goal and terrier-like defending meant they had too much in the tank for a Rovers’ side who held more possession but struggled to take chances all tournament.

They started well; Peter Blakeney brilliantly rounding David Harte and flicking home while off balance in the second minute but Pembroke were on terms inside 100 seconds when Ronan Gormley levelled with a soft goal. Following an auto-pass, his reverse-stick nudge bamboozled Wendel Armstrong and also bounced off a defender’s foot before crossing the line.

And Mick O’Connor gave Pembroke the lead for the first time in the 11th minute on the break, a deft reverse from the left edge of the circle

Patrick Shanahan responded within a minute, capitalising from a steal from Conor Harte to net. Pierre de Voux shot over soon after – one of a slew of chances to miss the target – and Sothern took advantage of the Broke’s only corner of the half to make it 3-2.

De Voux was sin-binned for three minutes in the lead up to half-time, a period in which Alan Giles had a goal disallowed but no further goals ensued to give Pembroke the edge at the break.

Liam Canning and Blakeney both missed the target before Sothern got the game-breaker in superb style in the 24th minute. With his back to goal, he dummied one way then spun on his reverse and dinked home from the edge of the circle.

Mick O’Connor and Alan Bothwell went to the bin for some argie-bargie but when both sides were restored to six men, Sothern found Conor Harte overlapping on the righthand boards with a brilliant diagonal pass and finished with the minimum of fuss.

No further goals ensued even though Rovers swapped Armstrong with an extra outfielder for the last eight minutes. Twice the ball rebounded off the Pembroke goal while Sothern produced one scintillating run only to miss a relatively open goal on the run.

Nonetheless, a further insurance goal was not needed and Pembroke were back on top of the indoor pile for the second time following 2007’s maiden triumph.

It brought to a conclusion the first running of the new, enlarged National Indoor Trophy, run excellently by indoor chairman Paul O’Brien and his team of helpers run over four weekends since December 20 with more than twice the number of entrants than its forerunner in 2009.
Pembroke now qualify for European competition in 2011.

Final: Three Rock Rovers 2 (Peter Blakeney, Patrick Shanahan) Pembroke 5 (Alan Sothern 2, Mick O’Connor, Ronan Gormley, Conor Harte)

Pembroke: David Harte, Paddy Conlon, Craig Fulton, Alan Giles, Alan Sothern, Conor Harte
Subs: Craig Wilson, Mick O’Connor, Conor Harte, Simon Thornton
Three Rock Rovers: Wendel Armstrong, Liam Canning, Garry Ringwood, Peter McConnell, Colin Huet, Peter Blakeney
Subs: Sven Galjaardt, Pierre de Voux, Alan Bothwell, Michael Maguire, Patrick Shanahan, Maarten Bos

* For more of Tristan Seaton-Stedham's photos of the title presentation, click here

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was unexpected!! Well done pembroke!

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Anonymous said...

Slightly off topic, I realise, but when did Suttonians drop points in the league??

Findo, ur Div2 table has them down as 19pts from 7 games.

I thought they were undefeated in the league & the branch website has them with 21pts from 7 games.

Thanks.

Stephen Findlater said...

They drew their first game of the season with Navan 3-3. There is an error on the Leinster Branch website.

Anonymous said...

Well done to Pembroke Indoor.. They got better as the tournament went on.
Disappointing tournaments for railway and monkstown. Monkstown should not be allowed to compete next season after not turning up on sunday.
Clontarf look very well drilled and knew what they were doing but just lacked the edge up front.There gk was probably the best in the tournament(sorry dont know name) and Rob Abbott had a very good tournament and Andrew Poynter looked handy.

Anonymous said...

Monkstown should not be invited next two seasons - this will teach all teams a lesson - As a Clontarf member I have to say the lads wer brillant and very unlucky - now know what to expect next year - Railway seem to have gone backwards

Anonymous said...

"Monkstown should not be allowed compete next year for not turning up"

Why not put all the group games on one day and the finals on the other?

Rather than play 2 on a Sat, play 3 on a Sat. Makes more sense than teams coming in at 9:00 to play a dead rubber.

Monkstown have been a breath of fresh air to the indoor tournament over the past few years. Not their finest hour on Sunday morning but sure why not just ban them from all hockey next year...disgrace etc.

Clontarf did do well.

Anonymous said...

Sorry but Monkstown are a disgrace for not showing up - even in fun events at Easter time if a team didn't bother showing up for a game because they couldn't care less - then they would not be welcome back.

This was an Irish indoor championship - they didn't bother laying a "dead" rubber - they should be banned - end of story,

show some respect to the tournament & organisers

well done pembroke, well done organisers

J

Anonymous said...

findo is it a clerical error or are ladies league games due to be played sunday not saturday next week?tell me its not because of the rugby or the likes!

Anonymous said...

Think Monkstown know they were out of order but scheduling needs to be looked at. Just think how they might have done had they even had one hour of training for that tournament.

Anonymous said...

'Think Monkstown know they were out of order but scheduling needs to be looked at. Just think how they might have done had they even had one hour of training for that tournament.'

Every team knew the schedule before the finals took place. When it was organised it was envisaged there would be 8 mens teams and 8 ladies teams. Impossible to have all the group games on one day. And you couldnt expect the IHA to reorganise just because a few teams pulled out at late notice.

Splitting the venue for the finals would have been a nightmare scenarion.

So it ran pretty much perfectly. Monkstown not showing up was poor (except for the 3 that did turn up). Avoca were out of it at that stage but still rocked up and were up for a good derby game.

Banning the town not really appropriate as the IHA are working hard to include clubs and promote indoor.

Well done to Pembroke on their win

Anonymous said...

To follow up 3:12 PM post, the Clontarf keeper is Stephen Cairns...an absolute legend.

Anonymous said...

February 8, 2010 9:51 PM

I'm sure monkstown would have done well had they had some training for the indoor.As would Pembroke,who also didn't have one single indoor session for the competition!Poor form from monsktown, showed a serious lack of respect for the tournament, it's organisers and their opponents.

Anonymous said...

Imagine if we got an International Indoor team back on track, With a few more years expierence and coaching think how good some of the young lads like Robbo, Rob Whelan, Coley and Elmo could be at the game. Lets get ot back together IHA!!

Anonymous said...

@ February 8, 2010 8:55 PM

There was a mistake in the handbook and on the Leinster Website apparently. A mail was sent to clubs last week to clarify.

All ladies' league games are to be played next Saturday, Feb 20th, not Sunday, Feb 21st.

Anonymous said...

I think we should focus on the positives of this weekend, well done to the organisers, and it was great to see alot of the established outdoor players playing indoors - hopefully the game grows from here,

Congrats to Pembroke & Railway

Clive