Cork
C of I 4 (H Honner 2, K Gaffney, K Coombes) Greenfields 2 (A McGovern, M
Holden)
Cork C of I produced a remarkable second half
comeback to win the women’s Irish Hockey Trophy for the third time, fighting
back from 2-0 down to beat Greenfields 4-2 at Serpentine Avenue.
In truth, they were the stand-out side in the final,
winning 13 penalty corners which they eventually made tell. It was a similar
story in the semi-final when they trailed to NUIG before running out 2-1
winners.
The tie, indeed, looked to be one-way traffic in the
opening stages as they ran up four penalty corners in the first four minutes
but nothing would stick for them in a frustrating spell.
Then, out of the blue, Greenfields forged an attack
through Rebecca Gilligan with the ball worked through to Alacoque McGovern
alone around the p-spot. She took her time before shooting through the defences
of Sarah Wrixon for a seventh minute lead.
Again, C of I went forward with purpose with Hannah
Honner a livewire bursting down the right flank with Hollie Moffett and Mel
Ryan driving things on.
Sarah Dunleavy and Aine Collins performed heroics at
the back to stymie the waves of attacks and they once again took their chance
when it came in the 23rd minute.
This time, Charlotte Elliott got off a shot that
Sarah Wrixon got down brilliantly to deny but Méabh Holden followed up on her
reverse to slide in for 2-0.
Things got worse for the Cork side when Holly
Sweetnam was shown a yellow before half-time and a couple more attacking
corners went awry.
Their frustrations continued in the early stages of
the second half with Moffett and the influential Nicola Kerr planting shots
into the chest of Sinead Collins.
Moffett’s deflected corner shot hit the front of the
post but their breakthrough eventually did come when Kerr crossed and Honner
scrambled home the ball, 2-1 with 24 minutes to go.
It released the floodgates and they were level with
14 minutes to go when they went the direct route from corner number 11, Kay
Gaffney smashing home, skipping their usual array of switches.
Honner then gave them the lead with less than 10
minutes to go, a superbly worked corner move with a touch in front of Sinead
Collins.
Greenfields almost sent the tie to shoot-out when
Aine Collins cracked a shot off the crossbar but the game was killed off when
Kirsty Coombes tore through the centre of the field and slipped home the fourth
goal.
Cork
C of I: S Wrixon, H Sweetnam, N Kerr, C Sexton, R Kingston,
O Crowley, A Roberts, A O’Mahony, J Coyne, E O’Hara, H Moffett, S Baker, H
Honner, K Coombes, M Ryan, K Gaffney, J Barry, L McHugh
Greenfields:
S Collins, S Dunleavy, K Dunleavy, R Gilligan, A McGovern, C Moore, T Garrett,
S Tierney, J Anderson, A Finnerty, E O’Connor, C Elliott, A Hennessy, M Holden,
Z O’Toole, A Collins, S Burke, J Langan
Umpires:
C Brophy, R Christie
