Ireland: Lynsey leads Irish into bronze play-off
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| Irish Hockey |
June 16, 2005
Belfast Telegraph, UK
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Six Nations
IRELAND captain Lynsey McVicker celebrated her 140th cap yesterday with one of the goals in a 4-0 win over Malaysia which earned her team an unexpected bronze medal play-off with China at the Six Nations tournament in Korea.
It was Ireland's second victory of the campaign and, having already surpassed expectations, anything they take from the re-match with the Chinese will be regarded as a bonus.
National coach Riet Kuper was understandably happy with the result, although Malaysia have proved to be the tournament whipping girls.
"We deserved the win and were never in any danger of losing," she enthused.
"Our objective was to keep a clean sheet, which we did and we didn't concede any corners which is also encouraging."
Earlier in the competition, Ireland held China - ranked four in the world - to a scoreless draw, though not too much should be read into 'challenge match' results as the acid test will come at the European Nations Cup in August.
Nevertheless Ireland's performances in Seoul will at least have given all concerned a massive confidence boost.
Yesterday Eimear Cregan opened the scoring on 14 minutes with her fourth goal of the tournament, after great midfield build-up play by Jenny Burke.
And Cregan made it 2-0 with three minutes of the first half remaining after being set up by Caitriona Carey.
Two minutes after the restart Ireland went 3-0 up throughBurke amd on 65 minutes, McVicker wrapped things up to celebrate her personal milestone in style.
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