Great Britain’s women progressed through to a final against
Germany tomorrow (Sunday) in the Setanta Trophy here in
Dublin.
But there were no celebrations in the GB camp after their victory over
Ireland, which bought them the ticket to the final.
Although comfortably the best side on the pitch, it was a lacklustre effort on the part of the British girls against a side that has finished the round robin stages without a point.
Two first half penalty corner goals, the first from Chloe Rogers and the second from Crista Cullen, put GB in the driving seat, and a third goal in the dying seconds from Charlotte Craddock wrapped the match up.
Final score, 3-1 to GB.
Germany, who had aleady qualified for the final, overcame
South Africa 2-0 earlier in the afternoon.
The men’s fate was decided before they even took the pitch. Nobody would have put money on a draw in the meet between Canada and Pakistan but at 2-2, and with only a few minutes left, Pakistan were content to hang onto the ball and the Canadians seemed to have no interest in stealing it off them, both in the knowledge that a draw would give each five points and a place in the finals. Although the match between Great Britain and Ireland might have seemed like a formality and a mere dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s 3rd/4th place game, Ireland started out in spirited form and opened the scoring after sixteen minutes with a goal in open play from Michael Watt. Fortunately, GB were able to reply with three penalty corner conversions in the space of ten minutes, courtesy of Messrs Kirkham, Middleton and Richard Mantell. Mitch Darling managed to close the gap towards the end of the second half with a goal in open play but GB were able to cling on to their lead to secure their first win of the tournament. Final score 3-2 to GB.
The writer would really like to give the GB boys a break and say (as he has been told) that it is important that the team peak in Beijing and not now. But it sounds very similar to the same mantra that was being repeated when England under-performed at the Champions Challenge in Boom almost twelve months ago. Manchester was supposed to the the ‘peak’ that time around and we all know what happened then.
Our pictures show Chloe Rogers scoring GB’s first goal in the women’s match, and, despite appearances and David Harte’s attempts to get a glove to it, a GB penalty corner strike goes wide in the men’s match
