Coaches take heart from weekend defeats

Irish senior coaches Gene Muller and Paul Revington insist plenty of lessons were learned despite failing to register a win in this weekend’s tests against higher-ranking opposition last weekend. Revington’s men’s side went down 5-3 and 4-2 to Belgium at Waterloo, while Muller’s women lost 4-0 to Spain in Valencia on Saturday before registering a much-improved performance in losing 2-1 on Sunday. Revington said: “The weekend proved to be a great benefit for the development of our team as we tested our quality against a top 10 ranked team prior to the European trophy.”

Two late goals from the Belgians accounted for the Irish on Saturday in a lively opener. David Hobbs’ deflection in the 66th minute had made the game 3-3 but the hosts finished the stronger to take the win. Earlier, Eugene Magee’s ninth minute tap-in and Mitch Darling’s solo and reverse nine minutes later had twice recovered single goal deficits, while Butler and Timmy Cockram struck the woodwork with drag-flicks. In Sunday’s clash, Magee fired in a rebound from Chris Cargo’s initial strike to put the sides level at 1-1 early in the second half, but while Stephen Butler marked his 150th cap with a trademark drag, it wasn’t enough to prevent a 4-2 loss. Meanwhile, the Irish women were again left to rue a lack of killer instinct, as they once again failed to convert periods of dominance into scores against the Spanish, although skipper Eimear Cregan did have them level at one stage with a superb strike. Muller said: “We deserved better than a 2-1 loss, we played our best match today. A clear focus needs to now be applied to both circles, we need to be more clinical as in the last two matches we had the same number of circle entries as Spain.”