Six points and a goal difference of +17 from two games is mission accomplished for Ireland’s senior men at the Electric Ireland FIH Road to London Olympic qualifier, but they will get a first real test of their mettle against Korea tomorrow night (6pm).
Paul Revington’s charges started slowly in both their opening encounters against lower-ranked Russia and Ukraine this weekend, but the floodgates eventually opened as they claimed 6-1 and 12-0 wins respectively.
The latter was their second biggest win of all time — eclipsed only by the 13-0 defeat of Malta in 2002 — but this was against a higher calibre of opposition who were made to look lost in a dominant Irish performance.
Hitting double figures against the Ukrainians yesterday was a big boost given Ireland have been stung by goal difference issues before; they missed out on the final of the 2008 Olympic qualifier in New Zealand by a single goal.
But coach Paul Revington was typically under-stated about this performance, reckoning it will have little bearing on the crunch game with Korea.
“I think we are happier with the clean sheet. It was a composed and organised performance and the result kind of took care of itself,” he said.
“I don’t think we’ll read too much into this. Korea will be tough and we’ll do our preparation to be ready for that.”
Given Ireland initially laboured against the Russians, going in only 2-1 up at half-time, Revington suggested his side’s difficulties may be mental rather than structural.
The misplaced passes and defensive lapses that pockmarked that 35-minute period largely evaporated against Ukraine, as Ireland’s forwards took them to the cleaners.
As against Russia on Saturday, Ireland started slowly but Timmy Cockram diverted Paul Gleghorne’s disguised sweep to the roof of the net on 14 minutes to open the floodgates.
That livened up a Belfield that had grown frustrated by a slow start, but Ireland then converted their first two penalty corners to put themselves out of sight by the 26th minute.
Eugene Magee nabbed both of them, first showing the skills he picked up as a hurler for Down in a previous life, half-volleying home after Conor Harte’s drag-flick was saved by Iaroslav Hordey.
And the second was even better, a pre-rehearsed move which saw Harte switch the ball right for David Ames to stick-stop, and Magee rattled home a drag past the exposed Ukrainian netminder.
Ireland made it four near the 30-minute mark after a crash ball was redirected onto the post. John Jermyn recovered the rebound to calmly beat two men in the circle and square for Cockram to slam home.
And it was five just before half-time, when Mitch Darling tipped in at the second attempt off Sloan’s cross from the right.
The second-half showed no let-up, with Darling converting after captain for the day John Jackson got to the endline, before Peter Caruth’s attempted cross off a turnover was turned in by a Ukrainian defender.
Mikey Watt then grabbed two in jig-time, first-timing Chris Cargo’s pass to the roof of the net before giving his marker twisted blood and firing home from the top of the circle.
Cockram completed his hat-trick and brought up double figures seven minutes from time, intercepting near halfway and running unopposed to the circle, reversing in off the far post.
And with Revington urging Ireland to keep the intensity up in the final minutes, Cargo reversed a beauty to the top corner before Jermyn collected his 73rd international goal seconds from time, batting in an upright backhand shot.
Despite being off the pitch for all Ireland’s penalty corners against Ukraine, set-piece specialist John Jermyn rocketed home a drag-flick against Russia and claimed one from play against Ukraine.
That leaves him on 73 goals, six shy of Stephen Butler’s Irish record, with the Dubliner joking on Twitter that he and Jermyn have struck a deal for the Cork man to stop when he draws level.
More serious business awaits Ireland though, with the Korean game bringing together two of the tournament’s top three sides for the first time.
Chile gave Ireland some pointers on how to counteract the tight-knit passing game of the Koreans yesterday though their resistance eventually waned as they lost 6-1. Second seeds Malaysia have looked the most defensively suspect of the trio so far, going two goals down to the Russians before recovering to win 6-2.
IRELAND: David Harte (GK), Ronan Gormley, John Jackson (capt), Conor Harte, Paul Gleghorne; Ian Sloan, Andy McConnell, David Ames; Mitch Darling, Eugene Magee, Mikey Watt.
Rolling subs: John Jermyn, Chris Cargo, Stuart Loughrey, Peter Caruth, Timmy Cockram.
FIH Electric Ireland Road To London, Day 2
Ireland 12 (T Cockram 3, E Magee 2, M Darling 2, M Watt 2, C Cargo, P Caruth, J Jermyn) Ukraine 0;
Korea 6 (H-W Nam, I-S Lee, S-H Yoon, J-B Cha, M-K Kang 2) Chile 1 (S Richter);
Malaysia 6 (M Amin 3, H Hanafi, M Razie, F Saari) Russia 2 (P Golubev 2);
Standings (goal difference): 1 Ireland 6pts (+17); 2 Korea 6pts (+11); 3 Malaysia 6pts (+8); 4 Chile 0pts (-9); 5 Russia 0pts (-9); 6 Ukraine 0pts (-18).
Tomorrow: Ukraine v Malaysia, 1pm; Russia v Chile, 3.30pm; Ireland v Korea, 6pm.