Connery gives Muller food for thought as Ireland A seal thrilling comeback

Áine Connery showed Ireland senior coach Gene Muller what he’s been missing as she fired Ireland A to a thrilling 5-4 win over Wales in Cardiff yesterday. The 21-year-old UCC hotshot, who has been overlooked by Muller since last December, struck twice and set up another for Katherine Elkin, as the girls in green overturned a 3-1 deficit at the Welsh Institute of Sport. Connery, who has now hit five goals in five games for Ireland A, is among a number of players who put their hand up for selection in front of the watching Muller, who opted to rest his senior side for this trip.

Among them is Michelle Harvey, who co-captained Ireland A with Connery to second in the Junior Celtic Cup in June and won her first cap in the senior event against France. The Victorians starlet marked her debut with a drag-flicked goal that day, and she repeated the trick with four minutes remaining in Cardiff yesterday to hand Ireland’s second string a famous win, which understandably pleased Muller. “It was a thrilling match, and we did well to win from 3-1 down,” he said. “We scored some very well-worked goals from open play, and the team were very excited by their performance.” Having gone down 2-1 to their hosts on Saturday, Ireland were in bullish mood from the off, with Connery intercepting a Welsh pass to find Elkin, who cracked the ball home first time for a sixth-minute lead. However, Wales were ahead inside eight minutes via carbon copy strikes from Dawn Mitchell and Beth Fisher, and Carys Hopkins punished a defensive lapse to put them 3-1 up just after the break. However, Ireland A bizarrely turned the game on its head with three goals in four minutes. Connery struck twice in as many minutes, one a superb lob from a one-on-one, before Megan Frazer tapped in for a shock lead. Sophie Robinson hauled the hosts level on 60 minutes, but Harvey stepped up to break Welsh hearts in the dying minutes. Wales gained a modicum of revenge in the men’s game, with late short corner strikes from Huw Jones and Oliver Cooper salvaging a 2-2 draw. However, Mitch Darling’s transformation into an international-standard striker of repute continued apace, as he claimed a double to take his tally to five in his last four outings a green shirt.

The Three Rock Rovers hitman slipped two defenders before firing a reverse to the roof of the net to give Ireland the lead in the 20th minute. He doubled their advantage by deflecting home a short corner in the 57th minute, but Ireland lost skipper Graham Shaw and teen sensation David Ames to the sin-bin, and Wales duly capitalised to draw level. Despite failing to record a win over the Welsh, who won 3-2 on Saturday, Irish manager Peter Jackon professed himself pleased with the progression of an experimental side. “Overall, this was a positive weekend for this young squad. They proved themselves today when the odds where against them, and were unfortunate not to come away with a more positive result,” he said.