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Irish Hockey

By John Flack In Villamoura

NORTHERN Ireland's women face a tall order when they play host nation Portugal at the Estadio Municipal in Lagos today as they attempt to break their duck after losing their first two Algarve Cup games.


Sara Booth's girls went down 4-0 to England and 2-0 to Mexico and today the going won't get any easier.


Northern Ireland captain Sara insisted last night: "We watched Portugal play England on Friday and they are a very big side and quite physical.


"They beat us 3-0 last year and it won't be easy playing them in front of their home crowd.


"But England beat them 4-0 so that gives us some hope of achieving our first victory of the tournament.

"Hopefully we can build on what was a good second half against Mexico.


"We were disappointed to gift them their two goals and we also conceded a couple of soft ones against England.

"If we can eliminate those sort of fundamental errors I believe we can get a result against the Portuguese."


Northern Ireland landed on the Algarve holiday coast on the back of a very limited build up and last week's 3-1 defeat by Sweden's U21s at Dixon Park was for many of the girls their first competitive match action for months.


Sara added: "One of our problems is the fact half a dozen of the players are on scholarships in America so we haven't had too many sessions as a complete group.


"But the girls have learned a lot from the experience so far and hopefully we can ranslate that into a good performance against Portugal."


Northern Ireland, managed by Linfield coach Alfie Wylie, have a day off tomorrow before facing a play-off match on Tuesday to determine their finishing position.

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