Disappointing Weekend for Men’s 1st Team up North
The men's 1st XI were knocked out at the pool stages of this years Club Championships at the weekend. They finished bottom of their group with only one point from their three games.
The tournament started off on a bright note when they met current Irish Senior Cup and Club Championship holders Pembroke Wanderers on Saturday evening. Despite being three goals down at half time CI fought their way back into the game through an inspired Jonathan Bruton hat-trick. His three goals were top quality with one being better than the next. His third goal to tie the scores up was definitely a candidate for goal of the tournament.
So having come back from the dead on day one the team entered day two in confident mood. Things were looking good in the first half of the game against Lisnagarvey. CI dominated the early exchanges and were creating plenty of chances. The best of these fell to Nigel Buttimer who saw his diving effort acrobatically tipped over the bar by the Garvey keeper.
The game turned in the 26th minute when Karl Burns received an arm injury and had to be replaced. This knocked the wind out of the CI sails and they had to dig deep to ensure the score remained 0-0 at half time. Karl did come back on in the 44 minute but he was playing in a lot of pain and was not the same player in the second half.
CI continued to press and won a number of penalty corners but to no avail. In through Lisnagarvey fashion they scored two goals in quick succession on the counter attack. CI continued to squander chances as the game wore on. So despite dominating the game for long spells CI were beaten 2-0 by a team that took their chances on the day.
The final match was played on Monday but before the game started Lisnagarvey had drawn with Pembroke which meant neither Cookstown or CI could qualify for the next stage.
A very tired CI team took to the field and again dominated the early part of the game but fell behind midway through the first half to a goal that Cookstown scored on the counter attack. However CI were soon back on level terms when Philip Smith scored from a penalty stroke.
CI started well in the second half and again had plenty of chances to take the lead but in what was becoming a familiar pattern every time CI missed a chance the opposition went down the other and scored. This happened three times in the second half.
So the tournament and the season ended on a disappointing note. CI only managed to register one point out of a possible six and so finished bottom of their group. Next years All Ireland League will see a new format. There will be no more tournament hockey. Instead their will be two pools of six. Each team will play five games with the top two from each group qualifying to meet in the semi-final and finals.
Cub Championships Squad: Billy Lynch, Andrew Whittaker, Andrew Chambers, Adam Pritchard, Karl Burns, Nigel Buttimer, David Hobbs, Alec Moffett, Philip Smith, Andy Herbert, Jonathan Bruton, Karl Lynch, Stephen Parker, Andrew Gray, Mark Holmes, Richard Arnopp, Andrew Daunt.