Pembroke produced the most comprehensive victory in the open era of the Irish Senior Cup as they mauled Ulster champions Cookstown 6-0 at Belfield yesterday, taking the opportunity to let their hockey do the talking after a week of off-field controversy.
Indeed, not since 1921 when the now defunct Royal Hibernians beat Queen’s University 9-0 has a final been so one-sided with Pembroke retaining the title and look a formidable prospect at next weekend's IHL playoffs.
Craig Fulton's side is in rude health - unlike this stage last year when his side dealt with a long injury list - and look the team to beat with their third trophy within a fortnight.
The build-up to the game had been mired in the eligibility issue concerning but man-of-the-match Gordon Elliott said the controversy had no undue effect on the Pembroke players: “We dealt with that fairly easily. We were just told this is the situation, it’s not any fault of the club and it wasn’t an issue for the players.
“You do have to feel a bit sorry for the guy in question and from that point of view it’s a bit disappointing.”
As for the game, Pembroke’s initial foundations were built on a stern defensive effort as Cookstown made the early running.
Superb tackling from Colin Kelly and Conor Harte, though, meant the Tyrone side was denied any shooting opportunities.
And with that side of the game intact, the trio of international talent Alan Sothern, Justin Sherriff and Gordon Elliott up front were always likely to prosper. Elliott snapped up the first chance in the 19th minute, sending Ian Hughes the wrong way after Paddy Conlon’s baseline rummaging created the chance.
Maurice Elliott then doubled the advantage, courtesy of an outrageous first touch to Conor Harte’s free-in. His reverse-side trap, flummoxed Hughes and Ian Hutchinson alike to set up and easy finish. From that point, Cookstown already looked a well beaten outfit though they did force three corners in the second half and Colin Donaldson's lob landed on the roof of the net.
Pembroke received no corners all game but Gordon Elliott’s tidy finish made it 3-0 just after the break before Sherriff’s superb run played in Elliott down the left flank. His pin-point cross found the sliding Paddy Conlon for a simple tap-in.
Sherriff was superb throughout and has been a rejuvenating force for the
His goal, in the 60th minute, therefore capped his performance, as he slammed the ball home from the top of the circle. Conlon then played in Alan Sothern for an incredible 56th goal of the season to complete the rout.
The victory also comes with the added bonus of a place in next season’s EuroHockey League.
Cookstown: Ian Hughes, Ian Hutchinson (capt), Gareth Cuddy, Ewan Butler, Andrew Barbour, Ivan Steen, David Best, Colin Donaldson, David Ames, Stuart Smyth, Keith Black Subs: Stephen Cuddy, Mark Crooks, Greg Allen, Timmy Smyth, Stephen Sloan
Pembroke Wanderers: David Harte, Ronan Gormley, Conor Harte, Gordon Elliott, Colin Kelly, Paddy Conlon, Stuart Loughrey, Justin Sherriff, Alan Sothern, Tim Lewis, Alan Giles Subs: Craig Fulton, Maurice Elliott, Michael O’Connor, Scott Lowrie, Simon Thornton
* For more of Adrian Boehm's pictures from the game, click here. For Rob O'Connor's pics, click here. Sportsfile and Inpho also have sets from the games.
82 comments:
four Sandford boys with ISC medals, congrats lads
brilliant performance
cookstown are class
cookstown need to have some experience in their squad can't play a whole squad of u21s. 6-0 was a bit harsh for us, well done pembroke and good luck for next year.
Fantastic performance by the Serpentine outfit - congratulations guys.
In reply to 10:36,I think you've missed my point.I'm a bit too old to win an ISC medal now but I have won a few medals in my time.More importantly,as I accepted them ,I knew that I had won them fair and square without controversy.
ye and cookstown lost 5-1 to the glens in IHL
key point, IHA created the monster. Pembroke seemed to have applied to let the man play and were told it was ok by the IHA.
as they had this hand in the situation, it is different from the McNulty precedent.
the more I think about it, due to the IHA's mistake, the game with mossley ought to have been replayed rather than give the win to either side. it seems to have taken an age to have been dealt with, though, which led to the impossiblity of postponing the final due to rte and a serious potential loss of face. wonder if the issue will be mentioned on the highlights show tonight
This sorry saga will run and run just wait and see.
i think glenanne and 3 rock would have sumtin to say on that matter. always a close game between the three top sides in leinster. nd the 2nd ehl spot must go to one of the leinster sides
12.14
yeh they're not bad i suppose but pembroke are wayyyyyyyyy better
Fair play to Pembroke yesterday. They taught us a lesson on how to play fast flowing hockey. May not have been such a convincing scorline if we had not have lost blacky so early on, and steeno either. Thomas Hutchinson was also a big loss.
Hopefully our young squad will learn from this match and continue to improve. Afterall, 13 of our 18 man squad are 22 and under!!
Well done Pembroke.
does anyone reckon they have seen a better performance from a club side in an ISC final? pembroke were simply awesome, conlon's pass for Sothern' goal, sherriff's shot, wiggy's tackling all immense. amaznig stuff
Well done Pembroke. On another note, i thought this weekends IHL games were supposed to be Live on Setanta? I just checked the TV listings there and they are only showing the Semi's on the day of the final and showing the final itself on the Wednesday?
Congratulations to Pembroke, incredible performance and team effort. Their workrate, passing movement and running off the ball were first class.
Credit to Cookstown, they came down, did not perform,lost heavily, but took it on the chin and have been gracious in defeat. And what great support!
It really doesnt matter how well Pembroke played or how many goals they scored.What matters is they broke the rules of the competition and that unfortunately is what most people will remember,nothing else.
CHC - best support in the Land!??
id say no doubt we are!
congrats to pembroke. we can only come back stronger from playing against that!
Pembroke got away with it becasuse they are a big club = NO.
It looks like they got away with it on a technicality, as in some form was not sent to the club re player eligability, however the rules RE Irish Senior CUP Eligibility have not changed in years so to use this loophole is lunacy.
I don't understand how you can register a player in October and he doesn't arrive in the country until January. This is very strange!
as a leinster man, I think this Ulster RIP stuff is a bit heavy-handed. I think the ulster youth set-up at the moment is out-performing the leinster one in terms of porducing highly skilled, technical players.
these things take quite a while to work out but I felt that the Ulster U-16 side (though they lost to a physically imposing leinster) had plenty of young talents with ball skills far beyond leinster's and were going about their development in the right way. these things take time.
also, leinster needs ulster and munster to be more competitive too to raise its own standards
Proud to be a red... Big defeat by a very impressive side. We would follow the lads anywhere to get cheering from the sidelines...
Red Army "forever" best spirit in the Land....
Congrats Pembroke....well deserved. The whole Erasmus thing is not the players fault so no one should be taking their win away from them. They absolutely hammered Cookstown yesterday. Cookstown are not a bad side (PW v CHC 0-0 in IHL) but Pembroke are absolute class at performing on the big days!
At 2:45pm.
I was at the game and in the 2nd half the "Red Army" were particularly quiet after you went 4-0 down.
I don't like "their easy" part of your chanting and your fans really shouldn't be saying that when loosing 4-0 to a team who looked like they were out at a training game.
DIV 1 player
Div 1 Player,
Its called a bit of banter.
the red army knew how gd Pembroke are and were yesterday. its all in good fun. do you want games with chanting and singing like yesterday in which i thought the red army were superb yesterday or the normal boring supporters who say nothing and just sit there.
if only everyone could have fans that done that, the sport wud be recognised a lot better
Red Army member
surely its a good thing that we keep supporting when we are 4-0 down. and for the "get into them they're easy" chant, they're just the words to the chant its not meant to be disrespectful. I think it would be a good thing if other teams had the same support and chants, it would bring even more atmosphere to the games. Well done pemb and good luck in the EHL next year.
does any1 know can cookstown appeal the decision or is that the end of it?
The Red army Banter is second to none... after the game we all hung around took it on the chin and enjoyed the rest of the day... Some laugh!
I challenge any Club in the country to put togehter a choir like the Red Army...lol
What we need is a Cookstown v Monkstown final next year - then there would be a real atmosphere. Two teams who both were soundly beaten by Pembroke in the final but whose fans know how to get behind their team.
I would assume that the IHA decision on the matter is now final. Wrong but final
re 3:40pm
What the six goals?
to April 27, 2009 4:22 PM,
challenge accepted, get down to the colours match between ucd and trinity next year and you'll hear some serious singing and 'banter' in the crowd!
Monkstown have the best support in Ireland without a doubt. Club on the up, already have fans behind them. Big season for them next year. Come on the blues!!
when is the final being shown on tv?
The final is being shown at 7 on RTE tonight!
BTW How many inter pro titles do Leinster Have!!!!
Imagine if Cookstown had have won this and made it into the EHL next year?
Irish hockey would look very poor indeed if there was a fluke result.
Just shows that it should be the IHL finalists that should be getting the two Europe spots
I am from ulster and we have to be honest and admit that Leinster hockey is much better than Ulster and Munster, the only top coach in Ulster is S Watt, The top three teams in Leinster play the game at a much higher tempo than we do and all of them have clinical short corner teams and quality goalkeepers unlike the Ulster teams. Ulster hockey needs to have a seriuos look at were it is going if not i think you could see our top players moving south to play as the quality is better and it offers a better chance to play in Europe. Ulster need some new coaches and foreign players.
What has changed in Leinster in the last 5 years ? Going from weakest club teams to strongest. Or have the other provinces slipped ?
i doubt ulster players will ever move south, couldn't see many willing to play down south. there isn't that much of a diff between the leagues, just pembroke are well ahead of the whole country,,,although Glens and TRR may disagree. I for one would lose alot of respect for any player that moved south purely for the hockey
Leinster Div 1 player
S Watt = Legend
anyone who thinks cookstown and monkstown have the best support have never been to the UCD TRINITY colours match, whole new level of crowd atmosphere.
Just a quick comment, while a couple of people have suggested the ISC has lost a bit of value since the introduction of the IHL, it still has an incredible capacity to generate interest.
This is the first story to generate 5,000 hits in one day!
You have to give a bit of credit to Cookstown, even though they lost convicingly to Pembroke. Name another club in Ireland where every player throughout all the teams (mens, womens and junior) all went to the same school (bar 1) and who are all from a town of around 13,000.
Cookstown unlike other clubs don't have a massive net of players to pick from.
Look at Pembroke. They have players from scotland, south africa, cork and all over Dublin.
Pembroke players just go and win the IHL and shut them all up...
Thats a ridiculous comment to make! Cookstown only have 13000 to pick from? The only player to not play for cookstown who has come through the school is Lennox! The mens player base in dublin yes is bigger, but for each club divide it by 10 in Div1, and even more if you take div 2 into account. If anything cookstown have it easy, they are guaranteed that any player coming through Cookstown High School is definitely going to play for the club. The only club that can even slightly relate to that is monkstown with St Andrews, and even then there is plenty of players in St Andrews who dont play for Monkstown.
Name another club in Ireland where every player throughout all the teams (mens, womens and junior) all went to the same school (bar 1) and who are all from a town of around 13,000
Banbridge are the same if not from a smaller town
Am not sure that the argument over having your own players from your own 'village' etc is a great one and one to be commended. Perhaps on the flip side this is what is inherently wrong with Ulster hockey. To broaden the knowledge base and produce new and innovative ideas we can either go out and seek them by playing in other clubs or even countries, coaching in other clubs or even countries or we can bring someone in who has done these things. I think we could name in one hand players and coaches in Ulster who have moved clubs, played abroad, coached abroad, coached outside their own clubs at International level. This leads to a very insular scenario where the same ideas are recycled throughout different generations at the same club. This is why Ulster clubs have gone so far but not reached the top in the alst 10 years.
At the ISC Final I heard the Steven Watt is going back to Banbridge next season. Any Bann men want to shed any more light on this one??????
S Watt = Legend
For those who missed the final and the replay on tv you can watch it on rte online.
Swatty = complete beast
I've heard his heart is actually a beating hockey ball and he does three timed miles each day before breakfast. Just rumours though.
Here's what Cookstown supporters have to say about it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKAcz0XGHx4
c of i 2s should of played instead of cookstown in the irish senior cup would of given them a better game!
Pembroke play very well and cookstown get slated. They tryed to put up a good fight., At least they got to final. the cookstown crowd was also very impressive. created a good atmosphere even when they were 5 nil down.. and all this about c of i 2s should of played thr
em. seriously, catch a grip.. i would never slate another club. hats off to pembroke. best tyeam in ireland at the minute. Anyone disagree??
queso.. how about you stop having a go at cookstown and get on with more important things. cookstown havent been in the final in ages. i wouldnt even know how long its been. Now that they are beaten 6 nil by a better side and you have to have a go at every little dig at them. are they not allowed an inspirational video??
the best team in ireland at the minute, wont be known until sunday evening.
well yes actually.... Three Rock Rovers are currently (until 2/3 May anyway) All-Ireland Champions... so they are officially the best team in Ireland.
Gotta hand it to cookstown tho, a lot of work has gone into it, as an amateur sport, hockey needs more people, players and supporters like they have in cookstown. What do they feed them up there? Must be all the sizzlin sausages, we all need some!
What is with my posts being edited before being put up? Either put them up in their entirety please or not at all. That way everything will be taken in context. Thankyou
lets be honest about the game in ireland Leinster have by far the best teams and also the best coaches. The only coach who maybe capable of breaking the mould is Mark Tumilty, rumour has it he is going to Bann and then we wil see what happens. It will be a huge challenge for any ulster team to get near the standard of Leinster hockey.
Leinster have better club teams this year but it goes in waves.As for Interpro level Ulster cleaned up in the boys winning 18s,21s and senior so overall Ulster have just as good players if not better
have you seen garvey play this season? i don't think i've seen them where the same players have been in the same positions once!
Queso? Great name...ish. but if you knew those people in the motivational video, that may make you realise how much it meant for cookstown as a club to progress that far in a national competition! I don't think there is a question around it but i think for us to get that far was an example, for us to have dominated ulster league for past two years - having previously been nowhere near it! With a lot of hard work put in behind the scenes and plenty of Sizzling sausages!
We are team for future - plenty of players in victorious senior ulster and 21 teams (more than any1 else i think)
For sheer technical ability Ulster players are at the forefront of Irish hockey. However whether through coaching or conservatism they do not seem to, or are not allowed to display their imagination and creativity.
Maybe it is the influx of foreign players and coaches over the past 5/6 years in leinster that makes the difference at the moment.
With Paul Revington and his young team in place the opportunity will be there for all provinces to benefit as long as club's internationals take back to their clubs what they have learned.
don't think i'd agree with that, there are some technically gifted players in leinster and munster that in my opinion are better than anything ulster offer,still,we join as one in hockey so it's great to see all of these players fighting for eachother in the national side.
Good to see brian dowling made an appearance at the start of the cookstown video....hockey is finally attracting big celebs at last
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