The Irish Men’s hockey team defeat Russians 8-2 in EuroHockey Nations Championship in Germany
The Irish beat their Russian counterparts by 8-2 in the first Pool C match at the EuroHockey Nations Championship (Men) played at Warsteiner HockeyPark in Monchengladbach, Germany on Friday, August 26.
As the result indicates, it was quite an entertaining game where the Irish taught the Russians a hockey lesson by dominating each and every minute of the play. The match proved a single sided game at the end in which the Irish were merciless for the Russians
who remained as the mere spectators during the whole match. The Irish athletes were as quick and aggressive in attack as solid in defence throughout the match. They exclusively dominated the play from the starting whistle till the ending moments by scoring
five goals in the first thirty five minutes and three in the second half, whereas their opponents could score only two during the whole action.
The first half started slowly and accelerated gradually as the Irish opened their account midway through the first half when Michael Watt converted a penalty corner into their first goal of the match in the 15th minute. The lead was doubled six
minutes after the opener when Mitch Darling scored a wonderful field goal in the 21st minute. The Irish earned another penalty corner in the 24th minute to which Eugene Magee made no mistake and tripled the Irish lead which was further
strengthened by Timothy Cockram in the 32nd minute with a beautiful field goal.
The Irish men finished their scoring action in the first half with a sensational strike by David Ames in the 33rd minute. The Russians scored their first goal in the last moments of the first half when Aleksandr Platonov netted the ball in the
35th minute. The first half concluded at 5-1 to Ireland. The Russians struggled throughout the first half of play.
The Irish started the second with full action as they scored their sixth goal just four minutes into the second half when William Geoffrey McCabe contributed to the scoreboard in the 39th minute. However the Russians replied well in the 50th
minute when they scored their second goal with Pavel Plesetskiy finding the net. The Irish added further to the misery of the Russians by scoring two more goals just before the close of the play. They scored their seventh goal of the match in the 63rd
minute but this time it was John Jermyn with a drag flick. In the last minute of the match John Jermyn once again found the Russian net by converting their last penalty corner in to their last goal of the game which ended at 8-2 to Ireland.
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