Railway Union retained Ireland's place in the third tier of European club indoor competition for another year in dramatic fashion, striking twice in the closing 90 seconds to defeat Hungary's Soroksari 7-6 yesterday in Rotterdam.
The Sandymount club had missed out on a top-four finish on Saturday when they fell 9-4 to Slovakian champions SK Senkvice. It dropped them into the relegation pool where they salvaged a 4-4 draw against Cardiff & Met, coming from 3-0 down inside seven minutes.
Safety
It meant they needed to avoid defeat against Soroksari to ensure safety but it looked to be going against them until
Kenny Carroll
scored his fourth goal of the tie to equalise.
Moments later, Rob Abbott snatched the winner to conclude a hectic weekend for Railway in positive fashion, ending fifth overall from the eight-team tournament.
Next on their agenda is to convince the Irish Hockey Association that they should be given a chance at representing Ireland in Europe again next year. Early in January, the IHA declared Queen's University the national champions, making them Ireland's representatives in Europe in 2016.
They won the Ulster championship by virtue of winning a two-game series with NICS. The Leinster championship, which Railway won after six weeks of competition, was not finished by the date the IHA intended to play the national final and so deemed Queen's the national champions. Railway are hopeful of appealing this decision and have requested a play-off with Queen's.
Outdoors, Monkstown moved a big step closer to the Leinster division one title as they edged past Three Rock Rovers 2-1 at Rathdown. With Glenanne and Pembroke sharing a 2-2 draw in Tallaght, Town are six points ahead of the rest with three rounds remaining. YMCA closed in on the IHL places with a 3-0 win over Corinthian.
