MEN'S HOCKEY EURO NATION'S TROPHY: STEPHEN BUTLER was the hero as Ireland snuck past Wales 1-0 in the semi-final of the EuroHockey Nation's Trophy in Wrexham yesterday, in the process gaining one of the two promotion spots back up to the top tier of international hockey in the Continent for 2011.
His 21st-minute pile-driver came from one of the rare openings of a scrappy battle. Johnny Jackson was the unlikely creator from left back. The Loughborough man’s three-dimensional skills broke three tackles before he was repelled by a rough tackle on the circle’s edge and Butler duly obliged from the ensuing penalty corner.
Wales had enjoyed the best of the early stages but their reliance on a faltering penalty-corner machine put them on the back foot. Drag-flick specialist Rick Gay let three early set-pieces go a begging before Huw Jones was sin-binned for a series of niggly fouls.
While he was in the bin Ireland scored but were unable to build up much momentum towards tacking on a reassuring second goal.
Single-goal advantages invariably invite late pressure but Ireland’s defence made a good fist of keeping their tackles just outside the circle, with Tim Lewis an absolute rock.
They were forced to do overtime when Ronan Gormley was harshly sin-binned with six minutes left on the clock.
In that time, Gay had one last effort from the penalty corner but he got the trajectory all wrong, clearing the cross-bar by quite a distance.
The miss meant Ireland’s support could breathe a little easier and now go into their second world ranking final within a month following their recent Champion’s Challenge II adventure.
Ireland will now face Russia in tomorrow’s final, bidding to overturn the 2-1 defeat on Tuesday in the pool stages but will need to be wary of tournament top-scorer Alexey Sergeev, who has netted seven times in four games to date.
IRELAND: D Harte, J Jackson, S Butler, J Brennan, J Jermyn, E Magee, G Shaw, T Cockram, A Sothern, T Lewis Subs: P Caruth, D Hobbs, M Darling, G McCabe, C Harte Wales: G Harris, P Swainson, C Bowen, J Naughalty, A Cornick, M Ruxton, L Prosser, H Jones, R Gay, N Rees, J Hughes. Subs: B Croxall, J Smith, R Joyce, R McNaught-Barrington.
EuroHockey Trophy:semi-final: Ireland 1 (S Butler) Wales 0; Russia 4 Czech Republic 1.
