Green Army finish series on a High Five
August 24, 2014
IRELAND 5 (Emma Smyth 3m; Deirdre Duke 11m; Nicola Daly 23m; Anna O Flanagan 25m; Katie Mullan 62m)
SPAIN 2 (Beatriz Perez 26m; Lola Riera 30m)
Ireland finished the final series against Spain with a comprehensive victory by 5-2. Ireland were the hungier of the sides right from the start and within 2m had taken the lead after good work by Chloe Brown down the left baseline set up Emma Smyth for a tidy finish. Ireland extended their lead in the 11m with a lovely team goal when a steal by Frazer set up Mullan and it left a diving Duke to tap in at the far post for a 2-0 lead. Minutes O’Flanagan shot from the top of the circle was narrowly wide. Frazer drive resulted in Irelands first PC of the game in the 22m but her strike was saved and a minute later Ireland were three up a great goal by Nikki Daly from the base line scoring from an acute angle. It was all Ireland and good work by Mullan forced their 2nd pc and whilst the initial shot from Sargent was saved O Flanagan was first to react to the rebound to finish and give Ireland a 4-0 cushion. A minute later Spain got their first goal when Beatriz Perez finished in the 26m and within 5 minutes were right back in the game when Lola Riera scored from a PC.
Half time score Ireland 4-2 Spain.
The second half saw both Goalkeepers Gray & Ruiz called into action on several occasions but no further goals until a 70 metre pass from Sargent in the 62m found Katie Mullan all alone in the circle and the young UCD forward showed composure to round the keeper and fire home to give Ireland a 5-2 victory
After the game Irish Coach Darren Smith thanked both France & Spain for an excellent series of matches ‘France got better as the Tournament progressed and Spain are a quality side showing consistency throughout. We enjoyed the two weeks and it was great to be able to play 8 matches and build on our systems and structures developed over the year. I thought today in the first 20m we were excellent and created a number of opportunities and I was also happy the way we closed out the second half. We now look forward to more test matches towards end of 2014’
Starting XI: Ayeisha McFerran GK; Cliodhna Sargent; Chloe Brown; Megan Frazer; Nicci Daly; Anna O’Flanagan; Emma Smyth; Nikki Evans; Shirley McCay; Gillian Pinder; Yvonne O’Byrne;
Reserves: Emma Gray (GK); Katie Mullan; Deirdre Duke; Kate Dillon; Ali Meeke; Hannah Matthews; Chloe Watkins
Source Irish Hockey
