Pembroke back in pole position

Men's Division One:
Glenanne 3 (Graham Shaw 3) Fingal 5 (David Bane 2, Eamon Bane, Tom Manning, Adrian Sweeney)
Fingal struck three times in the closing ten minutes to confirm their place in division one for another season, conquering in an ill-tempered match that saw both Stephen Butler and Steven Doran red-carded at St Mark’s.

Tom Manning got the only goal of the first half, finishing well in the 18th minute, before Adrian Sweeney doubled the lead, twice having to round Doran before eventually rolling home for 2-0.

Graham Shaw completed a corner move to get the Glens back into the tie before all the shenanigans kicked off with captains David Bane and David Keogh – wearing the armband on his 21st birthday in place of Joe Brennan – both sin-binned due to continuing altercations around the pitch.

The move scarcely acted as a calming measure as a tussle between Graham Shaw and Eamon Bane escalated with Derek O’Gorman and Stephen Butler, weighing in. Butler was shown yellow and continued dissent saw the sanction upgraded to red.

Gary Sharman followed to the sin-bin for not retreating fully and disrupting an auto-pass before Shaw got Glenanne back on terms with a carbon-copy of the first corner, a switch to the pusher-out. And he got his hat-trick when he deflected a crash ball past Nigel Grothier.

However, Fingal had the extra man for the closing stages and were level at 3-3 when Paddy Gahan was cleaned out on the edge of the 25 and Eamon Bane was on hand to rebound from the resulting corner.

David Bane zipped home a drag-flick before he completed the win on the final whistle from the flick spot. Sweeney won the stroke, drawing a foul from Doran who was shown a straight red for dissent.

The win sees Fingal clear of any potential relegation play-off while the loss for Glenanne, allied to Corinthian’s draw, means the title is very much back in Pembroke’s hands.

Corinthian 0 TRR 0
Corinthian’s hopes of a maiden Leinster division one title took a huge hit, though it could have been worse but for a few Ross Murray moments of magic to deny Three Rock all three points. The goalkeeper kept out Sven Galjaardt’s penalty stroke awarded after Pierre de Voux had his attempted shot on goal checked.

He also incredibly denied from Mick Maguire, a save made after initially being wrong-footed before diving the opposite direction to his body-weight to deny a shot from three yards.
Both sides had a couple of corner chances which went unconverted while the reds finished with nine men after both Lucas Piccioli (bad tackle) and Darren Kimfley (dissent) were sin-binned. Chris Pelow had earlier been binned for a stick-tackle, too.

Monkstown 1 (Andrew Ward) Pembroke 2 (Alan Giles, Paddy Conlon)
Pembroke produced some of their more fluid hockey of late as they started like a train against Monkstown. Alan Giles opened the scoring when he touched in at knee-height after Adam Pritchard had flicked the ball goalwards. Giles was also instrumental in the second goal, intercepting in the second half to set up a one-on-one with Dave Fitzgerald and squaring to Paddy Conlon to complete the move.

Mick O’Connor had earlier had a goal chalked off; Fitzgerald pulled off a superb stick save from a Sothern drag while Brian Groves cleared another effort from Sothern off the line after the ball stopped virtually on the post.

Andrew Ward pulled one back with a reverse-stick deflection to Andy Ewington’s drag and the Town built some late pressure as they went in search of a point but Pembroke held out and, with other results going their way, now have the destiny of the league title very much in their own hands.

YMCA 5 (Simon Mills, Andy Walker, Mikey Fry 2, Richie Pedreschi) Clontarf 2 (Luke Hayden, Andy Poynter)
YM recovered from a 2-1, half-time deficit to keep their IHL bid intact, scoring four times in the second half to pick up the points at Alexandra College. Luke Hayden deflected in a reverse-stick cross from Andy Poynter to break the deadlock and while Simon Mills fired home a drag-flick, the Bulls had the lead on half-time when Poynter finished a one-on-one.

Tarf were decent value for their lead but the faded in the second half. Andy Walker got YM level in the 48th minute before Mikey Fry’s double made the game safe. He finished off a decent move created by Rob Whelan and Stephen Walker for the go-ahead goal before Richie Pedreschi completed the scoring with an excellent chip over Stephen Cairns from the top of the D.

Men's Division Two:
Weston 1 (Darrell Carey) Suttonians 0

Dublin University 9 (Andrew Beverland 2, Hal Sutherland, Tolly Humphries, Henry Butler, Andy Gray, Daire Coady, Chris Tyrell, Freddie Hill) Bray 3 (Phil Davis, Donal Kelly, Stephen Jones)
Trinity notched nine for the fourth time in 2010 thus far to move up to second in the rankings, comfortably claiming the three points against Bray at Grange Road. Phil Davis' penalty stroke had Bray level at 1-1 but the students pulled clear to lead 5-2 at half-time and added four second half goals to completed the rout with eight different scorers on the list.