Ireland: Close shave but Barbour wings Italian job for Irish  x8
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| Irish Hockey |
September 13, 2003
The Belfast Telegraph
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By Graham Hamilton
Six months ago Cookstown's Andy Barbour was barely on the fringe of the Irish training squad ... but today he is established as an international first-team regular.
The pint-sized winger has been one of the big successes in the European Nations Cup and emphasised that again yesterday, playing a key role as Ireland finished the competition with a 3-2 win over Italy which left them in ninth place.
Barbour didn't score but was instrumental in running the Italian defence ragged, so much so that they resorted to fouling him.
And that allowed the Irish to tuck away a few penalty corners to ensure the success and a two-place overall improvement on the previous Euro series in Padova.
A comfortable win was a good way to finish the Barcelona series, but Barbour and his colleagues had mixed joy.
"Finishing ninth is an achievement, but at the end of the day, we know we were good enough to have finished fifth," said Andy. "But that's hockey!"
Barbour started the series on the bench but, unlike his colleague - Under 21 star John Jermyn who was overawed by the occasion and didn't do himself justice until the last game - Andy got stronger as the series went on and dovetailed well with Justin Sherriff and Mark Irwin up front.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and loved getting out there and doing the business," he said. "The coach said he was pleased at my performances, and by the end I was in the starting line-up instead of on the bench.
"I hope the bulk of the squad stays together, for we could yet improve our ranking over the next few years. Certainly I want to be part of the set-up!"
The Irish got off to a great start against the Italians, with Stephen Butler converting a penalty corner after just 90 seconds.
And Justin Sherriff ran in his tenth goal of the tournament after 11 minutes to put John Clarke´s lads in command.
With David Smyth and Nigel Buttimer the two left in the grandstands, and a comfortable early lead, it gave Clarke the opportunity to use some of the younger players, and Jermyn came on as a rolling substitute and the Cork lad finally showed his worth with some fine runs.
In fact it was he who scored the third Irish goal. Barbour won the penalty corner, and with usual set-piece experts Sherriff and Butler off the pitch, he took the responsibility himself and fired home a beauty.
The Italians pulled back two goals in a minute in the last quarter, both from Massmo Lanzano penalty corners, but the Irish safely saw out time to ensure their ninth place finish.
France, who wrecked Ireland's chances last week with a shock win, ended up in fifth position, beating Belgium 4-3 while Poland finished seventh following their 2-1 win over a Scottish side which included former Annadale midfielder Andrew McBride.
Switzerland finished 11th with a 4-2 win over Russia and that means there are just the medal positions to sort out today.
Germany face Spain in the final this evening with England and the Netherlands going for the bronze medal.
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