Scintillating Sothern puts Pembroke on track

Alan Sothern’s remarkable quadruple helped Pembroke Wanderers make history as the first Irish side to win a EuroHockey League game with a thrilling 4-2 win over Scottish champions Kelburne in Barcelona last night. Irish international marksman Sothern hit the fastest goal in the competition’s history, opening the scoring with a reverse-stick finish after just seven seconds after Mark Ralph’s defensive blunder. And he had bagged a hat-trick before the end of the first quarter, deflecting home Justin Sherriff’s reverse-stick cross to finish off a stunning effort, before scoring from the penalty spot after Craig Fulton was impeded.

But a shell-shocked Kelburne — inspired by former Monkstown skipper Ian Horsfield — rallied after the break, hitting back through Ross Stott before Ralph flicked home corner to leave a goal in it with 25 minutes to go. But Sothern responded in kind to quell the comeback – after Kelburne had Pembroke pinned in their own 25 for the guts of a quarter –  allowing Pembroke to breathe a bit easier. The Ballsbridge side are now in pole position for qualification for the last 16. Unless Kelburne upset Rotterdam, one of the tournament favourites, tomorrow, Pembroke will have already qualified before they meet the Dutch giants on Sunday. Ireland’s other representatives, Glenanne, have a mountain to climb after going down 4-1 to 2008 champions UHC Hamburg 4-1 in their first appearance at this level. Stephen Butler’s short corner gave them a chance at 2-1 down at half-time, but the more accomplished Germans took their chances to comfortably take the tie, with Florian Fuchs and Moritz Furste bagging two each. Today’s tie with Poland’s Grunwald Poznan was always going to be make or break for the Glens, and a victory here will give them a great chance of qualification.