Monkstown 1 (Andy Ewington) Railway Union 0
Andy Ewington's (pictured) low drag-flick inside 100 seconds proved the only goal of a freezing night at Rathdown on a pitch that looked to be scarcely playable given the number of slips and slides both teams endured. The three points were invaluable for Monkstown in their bid to claim an automatic IHL spot for a third year running and they were decent value for the points and should have made the game safer from at least one of six second half corners.
Stephen O'Keeffe impressed between the posts while Ken Carroll was a tough roadblock in the centre for a forward line shorn of the ill Gareth Watkins and Ian Allen. Andrew Ward went closest to doubling the lead with a bizarre deflection to a ball deflected high off a Railway stick that looked to the whole gallery to have snuck in.
For Railway's part, they did draw a remarkable save from Dave Fitzgerald in the first half while he was equal to a Fred Gilmore first time effort from the right of the circle after a sublime Mark English through ball. English also had a snap-shot well batted down but the Town certainly held sway. Karl Chapple was sin-binned in the first half for a bad tackle while Stephen Cole's yellow for hitting a ball away did not lead to any major drama in the final five minutes.
Men's Division Two:
Navan 2 (Simon Clarke 2) Dublin University 9 (Tolly Humphreys 2, Craig Moore 2, Henry Butler, Chris Tyrell 3, Daire Coady)
Trinity struck nine times for the third time since the turn of the year and while it is probably too late to consider it a title charge with two games to go, second place is not inconceivable given a couple of fixtures the current top three must fight out amongst themselves. The students raced into a seven goal lead before Simon Clarke pulled back a couple for the Badgers but the damage was already long done. With Bray and Navan still to play, a points total of 26 points could yet put the cat amongst the pigeons.
20 comments:
Steve is there any news on what the leinster branch is going to do with division 2.
I think its only fair to the teams who are looking to go up or indeed for clontarf who, barring a miracle will be relegated.
At this point, nothing has reached me nor anyone I have spoken to at any games recently so I assume the status quo remains in place; that is tenth is relegated, ninth will play-off against second in division two.
Until anything else is confirmed, I would go by that rationale.
stevo could i suggest that we could get rid of two crapy cups in 1st division add in 3 more teams from 2nd devision and then join the rest with division 3.
Nobody in division 2 is good enough to go up.
whoever wins division 2 is going up. get over it.
i was at the monkstown game last night; there is no way you can say monkstown were well worth the win. at the end of the 1st half, railway should have been in the having dominatd the play. town in fairness were the applied much more pressure on railway in the 2nd half and had good chances for more goals.
Pillow is banging them in!
2.38 has a point. I think whatever team wins promotion should put their hand up and say they will stay down as long as last place in Div 1 comes down as well if the Leinster branch doesn't do anything about the leagues.
Get rid of 2 teams out of div 1 and put them in div 2!
8 teams div 1
8 teams div 2
Solves all problems and makes both leagues stronger...
4.29 has a point also, that machine is on fire
Come on pillow.
'2.38 has a point. I think whatever team wins promotion should put their hand up and say they will stay down as long as last place in Div 1 comes down as well if the Leinster branch doesn't do anything about the leagues.'
Yeah right. Get real. I cant see anyone agreeing to such a ridiculous suggestion
March 10, 2010 2:38 PM
False
if sutton go up they'd get a good few players in...same with weston
March 10, 2010 4:41 PM
are you saying that a team trains their balls off to gain promotion and then go ah no wait a min lads sure we wont go up....sure we're grand here!!! i think your sniffin a bit too much permanent marker!
So as a team you'd rather come up, be the whipping boys for a year then go straight back down? What a waste of a year. It's always going to be very hard for a team to make the jump from 2nd to 1st div.
It should be a promotion relegation match for both positions. The advantage of coming first is that you get to play the weakest side. I'm sure most first teams would rather have one less team in the division, have a free weekend twice a round.
10.21am - i feel your view shows a complete lack of respect for division two clubs who are trying to develop their game which in turn will benefit leinster hockey.
the amount of teams that have gone down and not come straight back up again while the number of sides who have kept their place in div one in recent times bears testimony to this.
bray stayed up two years, railway are now back up two years, kilkenny too, ucd now getting more established in the division.
ok this year, Clontarf look certain to go straight back down but they played some decent stuff at times and worked really hard to get where they are... one swallow doesn't make a summer so to deny promo/relegation based on this is ridiculous. It's an intrinsic part of league sport and if it wasn't then teams would probably just give up halfway through the season if the IHL places were out of sight.
4:16. Are you serious...I haven't seen such a one sided game in a long time. You should see the stats...something like 40 circle penetrations to 3. Very rarely can a team feel comfortable with a one goal lead buty Monkstown clearly were.
I'd love to hear if any clontarf player thinks going up to play a higher standard of hockey against better opposition was a mistake? Guarentee none of them do. Its a joke to think any div 2 team would pass up the opportunity!
The only reason UCD are getting more established is because this is their 3rd season in the league. Teams will often need more than one season to adjust. UCD didn't evade automatic relegation by much either.
I'm not saying Div 2 teams shouldn't be able to come up, but I don't think it should be automatic. Play a 2/3 leg style promotion/relagation at the start of the next season, and the best team plays Div 1.
Looking at the current Div 1 squads, do you honestly think in the first year the top Div 2 team is going to finish higher than one of them?
Removing a teams right to promotion is not the answer. Not only is it an insult to teams aspiring to get into Div 1 (Remember, some teams have already played in Div 1), it would alos be regressive, not progressive for the problem at hand.
Realistically it needs 2 leagues of equal amounts of teams!
Why not introduce the following system for next season. It is too late to do anything about it this season and would be unfair to all teams involved (both those with prospect of relegation/playoff and promotion)
1. From next season remove the promotion/relegation playoff. It is a stupid system that inevitably favours the team from Div 1 who have been playing better sides week in week out.
2. From next season increase the amount of teams relegated from Div1 to 2 teams. Both straight down, until both leagues have equal amounts of teams.
3. In conjuction with the above, get rid of the playoff and only promote 1 team for a couple of years
Therefore 2 down, 1 up for a few years.
Once there are 8 in each league promote 2 and relegate 2.
That means for 2 years at least one of the prmoted teams will stay up, giving them a chance to grow and develop their clubs/squads.
Its only a suggestion, and no doubt like all the other suggestions will be met with comments, critical and supportive.
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