HOCKEY/Irish Senior Cup Final/Glennane 4 Annadale 3:Glenanne earned their second Irish Senior Cup the hard way at Belfield yesterday as Annadale were again left to wonder if they will ever get their hands on the only trophy they have yet to win. The Belfast side did have an unsteady grip on it as a match that Glenanne were cruising 2-0 with less than 10 minutes to go turned into a roller-coaster goal -fest, finally finishing 3-3.
Golden-goal time and it was then Stephen Butler won it for Glenanne. But enough of that.
Four goals between the 64th and 68th minute defined this match. It was expected to be shaped by set-pieces given the strength of Annadale's Ian Hamilton and Glenanne's Butler. And so it was. Annadale had five and scored none. Glenanne earned one and scored to win the match.
For long periods in the first half the teams showed little penetration but the Dublin side were edging it. After 18 minutes a free on the right from Butler was slipped to Graham Shaw. Shaw sent it back and Butler's optimistic reverse hit into the circle was pounced on by Mark Lambe, who looped it into the corner for 1-0. From then on Glenanne showed more penetration.
The break came and went and soon after another free on the circle was slipped to Butler. He whacked it hard first time with Brendan Parsons getting a touch on the post to turn it inside. With Glenanne 2-0 up and playing with more threat, Annadale seemed out but in the last 15 minutes they found a spark. A few things happened. Glenanne went to half court and stopped attacking and later Alan Browne was yellow carded as the game turned.
Fraser Mills' strike on 64 minutes, which hit Clinton Murphy on the head on the goal line, was rewarded with a penalty that Ian Hamilton converted for 2-1 and while Nazir Munir came off the bench to flick in from a narrow angle on 65 minutes for 3-1, the match was just beginning.
Annadale hit back on their fifth corner a minute later, the ball finding a leg from second phase and Hamilton converting his second penalty for 3-2. Two minutes later and Annadale's Ian Lewers broke into the right side of the circle and drilling a reverse stick shot low into the goal. Glenanne almost won it in the dying seconds, Munir cracking the post. But the game finished 3-3 and the Belfast side had the momentum.
Alas for them, they coughed up their first corner eight minutes into golden-goal time and Butler dragged it low for the winner.
GLENANNE: I Clarke, P Fitzpatrick, J Brennan, C Murphy, R Shaw, A Brown, S Butler, B Parsons, G Shaw, J Goulding (capt), E O'Malley. Rolling subs: N Munir, J Kane, M Lambe, D Kehoe.
ANNADALE: J Moore, D Robb (capt), M Kendal, D Smyth, N Hamilton, S redpath, J Quigley, I McKeown, I Hamilton, I Lewers, C Jackson. Rolling subs: F Mills, P Carruth.
Umpires: C Hutchinson, D Stewart.
