Ireland left with plenty to ponder

Ireland left the Investec London Cup with some stinging words from Great Britain coach Danny Kerry ringing in their ears, after they finished bottom of the pile thanks to a 3-0 defeat to Great Britain in Chiswick. Denis Pritchard’s charges were playing off against the hosts in the fifth/sixth play-off of the Olympic warm-up event and saw GB’s Hannah Macleod convert twice from close range in the first half before Emily Maguire’s corner bash netted her a first international goal in the second half.

But Kerry fumed at his charges’ performance, insisting they should have hammered the girls in green: “The penny needs to drop with some of the players. Our skill execution was poor and we should be putting them to the sword. It should have been a cricket score.” Irish coach Pritchard saw things differently: “We played well in periods and created numerous turnovers but failed to capitalise on this, and then leaked two soft goals. We dominated for a period at the start of the second half but were wasteful with our circle entries and GB punished us.” It’s back to the drawing board now for interim coach Pritchard ahead of the Celtic Cup at Lisnagarvey later this month, with chance conversion once again a priority after his side scored just once in three games last week, admittedly against top-ranked opposition. The girls in green succumbed 4-1 to Australia in game one, with Nicci Daly netting a late consolation, while Emma Gray’s excellent saves furtrated the Netherlands for half an hour in game two, only for the world number one side to eventually cruise to a 5-0 win. The Netherlands won the tournament, defeating surprise finalists Australia 4-1. Meanwhile, a scratch Ireland A side made up primarily of U21players — some of whom met each other for the first time prior to the first match — performed well against a strong England A side, drawing 1-1 on Saturday thanks to a strike from Catholic Institute’s Naomi Carroll, before fatigue contributed to a 4-0 defeat against the same opposition yesterday.