Brennan and Cargo get the nod

Ireland senior men’s coach Paul Revington yesterday confirmed Joe Brennan and Chris Cargo have been given the final berths in his squad for next week’s EuroHockey Nations Championships in Germany. Revington had last week named a panel of 16 before adding that 10 more players would fight it out for the final two spots prior to last weekend’s double-header against Argentina.

Reading attacker Cargo, one of the EuroHockey League’s top scorers, has seemingly got the nod over the likes of Peter Blakeney and Gareth Watkins, while Glenanne’s Brennan has ousted Bruce McCandless, Stu Loughrey and Ronan Flannery for the final defensive berth. Ireland begin their European campaign against England on Sunday, August 21 in Moenchengladbach. Revington’s side had completed their European championships build-up with a pair of  losses to Argentina at Belfield over the weekend. The visitors earned revenge for a 4-1 defeat a week earlier in France, using swift breaks to take the laurels in both ties. On Saturday, Ireland struck twice in the last nine minutes to tidy up an ugly looking scoreline, losing 3-2. On Sunday, the hosts started much better, John Jermyn deservedly opening the scoring in the 20th minute from close range. But two Pedro Ibarra drag-flicks and a close range effort from Tomas Argento Innocente turned the game around. Ignacio Bergner completed the win from the penalty spot to round off the 4-1 win. The Irish women completed their preparations with a third successive loss to Spain, Alex Speers getting the goal in a 3-1 reverse which followed two single-goal defeats where both decisive strikes came from short corners.