Jermyn hails ‘most important’ drag-flick

John Jermyn last night described the drag-flick that helped Ireland draw 1-1 with Malaysia and qualify for an Olympic qualification playoff as “the most important” of his hockey career. The 29-year-old Cork Church of Ireland man has had a distinguished career won plenty of trophies with club and country and played in a EuroHockey League final in 2008. But after scoring the vital equaliser 10 minutes from time to ensure Ireland reached tomorrow’s final against Korea – to be televised live by RTE – Jermyn reckoned it was top of the pile in terms of career highlights. “It would be up there, probably the most important,” said the midfielder. “We stuck to our game plan, pushed on to the end and piled on the pressure and it paid off.”

It helped to banish the memories of the 2008 qualifier in New Zealand, when Ireland missed out on a final place by a single goal, though Paul Revington’s men were made to work hard for the result. They won the corner count 7-0 amid a consummate defensive performance – Paul Gleghorne in particular was outstanding – but were hit by a sucker punch on 40 minutes when a diving Nabil Fiqri redirected Sukri’s crash ball home on 40 minutes. Ireland had dominated the first half for long periods and forced the only two short corners of the half, but Malaysian keeper Kumar Subramaniam was alive to Ian Sloan and Jermyn’s drag-flicks. The best chance from play fell to Timmy Cockram, who seemingly didn’t realise how much time he had when firing a snap-shot wide after David Ames had bullied his way through. Malaysia’s best chance of the opening half came just before the half-time hooter when Stuart Loughrey missed a long overhead and Abdul Jalil Tengku blasted a reverse wide under no pressure. The visitors, playing relatively unambitiously and looking to counter, had already been happy to dump a lot of long balls to the Irish defence in the hope of forcing an error, and they sat even deeper after scoring, knowing they needed three points to advance. But Ireland never panicked despite enduring a fallow third quarter when the passes didn’t stick, and continued to work the oracle and win the corners. These were mostly thwarted by some Malaysian suicide running until  Jermyn stepped up with 10 minutes to go to roof a trademark drag-flick, his 74th international goal. Malaysia didn’t help themselves as indiscipline saw them down a man for much of the final 12 minutes as Fiqri and Marhan both saw yellow. But Ireland put in a controlled, mature performance to wind the clock down inside the Malaysian 25 and secure the draw they needed. Afterwards, Jermyn disputed the notion that Ireland’s set-piece misfired, with Eugene Magee and Timmy Cockram seeing drags blocked while Jermyn had one saved and a switch to John Jackson misfired. “I felt the corners were going quite well. Personally, I was happy enough with my first flick (in the first half) but it was a good save.” Jermyn also moved to dispel any fears the green machine might have left nothing in the tank for Korea tomorrow. “Honestly, I think the lads are quite fresh. We played them (Korea) on Tuesday and our performance wasn’t the greatest. Anytime you draw 1-1 having not played well, that gives you confidence for the final.” *Ireland’s game against Korea will be broadcast live on RTE 2 from 3.55pm tomorrow.