Greenfields Hockey Club

Greenfields Hockey Club 2 Bandon Hockey Club 0

Greenfields made the long trip to Bandon last Saturday to face the local side who had beaten them earlier in the season in the Examiner Cup.

However, Greenfields came away victorious on this occasion with a great all round performance and now face Northern Ireland Civil Service in the semi final of the Irish Hockey Trophy on March 3rd.

Bandon started strongly and tore into their visitors for the first fifteen minutes of the game. They were unlucky not to have taken the lead in this period. Hillary Chapple was controlling matters from the center of midfield and her through ball to Amy Hospond forced a fantastic save from Sinead Collins after five minutes. Minutes later Bandon launched another attack from Chapple in midfield and Laura Buttermore was just wide of the right hand post.

Greenfields first opportunity came on fifteen minutes. Neasa McGettigan picked up a ball from defense and moved it left to Sarah McDonald. She found Alma Whelan in the box and the latter forced a good save of Claire Hayes. Two minutes later Greenfields got a free thirty metres out. Sarah McDonald took this quickly dribbled towards the circle and passed to Alma Whelan whose back was to the goal. She turned superbly, looked up and picked her spot before shooting for a superb goal.

Bandon’s heads seemed to drop after this goal and Greenfields took advantage and went on the attack again and were two up three minutes later. Aine Collins, who had a great game at left back, pushed the ball forward into space from the halfway line. Trish Garrett took off at pace and beat Emma Peters in the sprint for possession. She carried to the left corner and cut in along the end line to feed the incoming Neasa McGettigan who scored with a great shot to the left corner.

Bandon nearly pulled one back before halftime when a defensive mix up allowed Sarah Sullivan and Laura Buttermore have a two on one but Sinead Collins came off her line and cleared the danger.

Greenfields played very sensibly in the second half and retained possession of the ball. This frustrated the Bandon girls and they began to get physical resulting in the eventual yellow carding of their best player Hillary Chapple. Greenfields took complete control at this stage and had a series of short corners but failed to add to their score.

They can now look forward to the All Ireland semi final and hope that they can add an Ulster team to their list of victories having already beaten Leinster and Munster oppositions.


Match report courtesy of Mike Ryan