Ireland

IRELAND Under 18 boys' hockey coach Stephen Watt woke up today in Barcelona with mixed emotions after last night's agonising 8-2 defeat by Holland which denied his lads a repeat of last year's gold medal achievement in Rotterdam.


The result left Ireland Holland and Spain tied together on points in the second phase of the tournament but the Dutch struck gold on goal-difference.


"The boys were absolutely devastated at the outcome." said the Ulsterman this morning.


"But when we look back how many Irish teams in any sport have finished first and second in Europe in successive seasons apart from rugby?"


"So it was a magnificent achievement for them and I'm proud of them."


"The Dutch Hockey Federation people came up to us afterwards and congratulated us on the way we had played.


"We decided not to change our game-plan and just to keep on playing the way we had been."


Ireland were still in sight of their target at half time when they only trailed 3-2 and Holland needed to win by four clear goals to prevent the Irish boys from lifting the top prize.



It was skipper Mark Gleghorne who got the team off to a good start, increasing his spectacular goal tally increased to 10 in five games.


Peter Blakeney got the second to keep the Irish in contention going into the second-half.


In contrast it was a good day in Barcelona for the Irish under 16 boys yesterday as they had a magnificent 8-1 win over Czech Republic to avoid relegation.




Meanwhile in Dublin there was triumph for the under 18 girls yesterday when they defeated France 2-0 leaving them only needing a point from today's game against Scotland to prevent themselves being relegated.





Fixtures: Girls U18 - Today: Ireland v Scotland (noon)

Girls U16 - Tomorrow: Ireland v Russia (noon)

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