Irish manager says Swiss are no pushover
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| Irish Hockey |
September 10, 2003
The Irish Examiner
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THE Irish men’s hockey team will have to quickly overcome their disappointment of failing to beat Belgium on Monday and missing out on a top eight finish in the European Championships, or they could lose further momentum.
That was the view last night of Ireland team manager Stephen Hiles, who said the game against Switzerland tomorrow, would be no cake walk.
Hiles said the Swiss were no pushovers and had only lost narrowly to both England and Poland and probably had their own disappointments to recover from.
“The Swiss are a good team and we have played them fairly regularly over the years. We lost 2-1
to them at the exact same stage of the last European Championships in Padova in 1999 and we played them again in June this year when Gordon Elliot and Mark Irwin scored in a 2-1 win.
“But they pushed England hard in the pool stages here and they only lost 3-2 to Poland, so they’ll want to make up for that,” he said.
“This will not be a breeze at all and I have no doubt there is a sense of frustration in the Swiss camp at some of the results which went against them. We have to make sure we are on top of our game enough to prevent ourselves being on the end of a backlash.
“Thankfully have a full compliment of players and no injuries, which is somewhat unusual at this stage in an intensive competition like this. Our players are mature and experienced and they know they have to put the disappointment of the Belgian game behind them, because if they don’t they could well find themselves ending up in eleventh or twelfth place. The best we can achieve now is ninth place and we will do everything in our power to achieve that.
“There is no place for hard luck stories in championship hockey and we have to be very aware of that fact. If we are not, then it could catch us out.”
The men’s team had a run out at the Club de Polo in Barcelona yesterday afternoon and coach John Clarke will have a full squad to pick from.
In the meantime, the women’s coach Riet Kuper also reported a clean bill of heath within her squad as they prepare to take on France tomorrow in their 5th-8th place cross-over games.
Kuper said that Ireland have played France on many occasions and the sides knew each other well.
“The only thing about them that worries us is that one of their best players, Peggy Bergere, was out when we met and beat them in the Celtic Cup and she is back now and playing very well, so we will have to keep an eye on her,” she commented.
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