Relegation now occupying Irish minds

Ireland senior women’s coach Gene Muller drew some crumbs of comfort in what he saw as an improved performance despite watching England come from behind to defeat his side 3-1 at the EuroHockey Nations Championships in Germany yesterday. Ireland hit a purple patch ten minutes before half-time in what was essentially a dead rubber, Niamh Small deftly converting a rebound after Emma Smyth’s reverse was saved, while Shirley McCay topped a reverse wide when given a clean shooting chance. But England upped the ante to dominate the second half. Hannah Mcleod deflected home the equaliser after Crista Cullen was given too much time to send in a crash ball, before Helen Richardson danced past three tackles on the endline and eventually battered home a few minutes later. England made it safe midway through the half with a textbook short corner move, directing the ball back to injector Anne Panter with the Irish postwoman nowhere to be found. Despite the victory, England coach Danny Kerry struggled to contain his frustration, stating afterwards: “It took all my resolve to give a calm half-time team talk when I wanted to go and smash heads together.” He added: “I have nothing positive to say about my side’s performance today bar Helen Richardson’s game” before qualifying the statement by adding “I’m generally a miserable kind of guy”.

Irish coach Muller, as he has throughout the tournament for the most part, dug out some positives from the encounter, despite seeing his side bossed for most of the second period as they struggled to string passes together. “We started better; we haven’t been able to create tension in matches, conceding goals at times when our opponents didn’t necessarily have the ascendancy. I was disappointed for us to concede in quick succession but overall, I’m fairly happy going into the last two games.” When asked after the game why he opted to make changes to his back four a couple of minutes into the second half, just preluding the English goal-rush, Muller said it was part of the regular rotation. “It was a difficult match, you had to play the game in hand but also with the future in mind. It was a fairly hot day and we can’t lose one match [from now on]. If you play players to the max, you might lose that match, so it’s being smart and sensible.” Ireland now head into the relegation pool where they’ll meet Azerbaijan and Italy, likely needing to beat both to retain A division status. As they go in with no points from the pool games, matching a best-ever finish of fifth place, achieved in 2005 and 2009, is unlikely.