Ireland

IRELAND last night overcame the disappointment of their opening draw against Austria in Vienna to beat Switzerland 2-1 in the Four Nations tournament being used as preparation for the European Nations Cup in Barcelona.


It was a much-improved Irish display and one which will have restored pride and confidence going into today's game with Russia, who were beaten 3-2 by the hosts yesterday.

reland were always in control and, with better finishing, could have won by a bigger margin.


"We were much happier with our performance and we eradicated some of the mistakes which had proved a problem against the Austrians," said stand-in manager David Judge.


By half-time Ireland were 2-0 up and the game was as good as over.


It was an Ulster one-two which did the initial damage as Lisnagarvey's Mark Raphael set up Instonians striker Mark Irwin for the opener after 11 minutes.


Six mintes before the break Gordon Elliott made it 2-0 when he deflected in a reverse-stick shot from Justin Sherriff.



Ireland weren't at their peak after the restart and the Swiss pulled one back near the end from a penalty corner through Michel Vlater.

Five of the seven Ulstermen were involved from the start, with the exception of Chris Jackson and David Smyth who were rested ahead of today's final game against Russia.

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