Thrilling men’s cup ties bring 96 goals across 16 fixtures

Saturday’s 16 men’s national cup fixtures produced a remarkable 96 goals with thrills and spills a plenty across the Irish Senior Cup and Irish Hockey Trophy.

Cork C of I won a Munster thriller against Bandon to reach the final eight of the Senior Cup, eventually prevailing after a shoot-out following a 3-3 draw in normal time.

The west Cork outifit had led 2-1 at half-time as they eyed a famous win and it was still in the balance when the tie went to shoot-out with Bandon leading at 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 but C of I kept pace and slotted their winner.

Cookstown will continue to fly the Ulster Premier Division flag into the quarter-final as they raided Railway Union to land a quarter-final spot via a shoot-out.

It was a big battle with Cookstown taking the lead via Jack Haycock’s corner only for Jeremy McKeever and Rob Abbott to turn things around. But Max Anderson snagged an equaliser while Railway were down to 10 players in the closing five minutes and they took the momentum into the shoot-out to win 2-1.

It was one of three wins on the road as Pembroke finally found form to defeat Annadale 5-1; their first success of the campaign. They did trail early on to a Callum Robson strike in the seventh minute but a stroke and a corner goal from Alan Sothern swapped the lead by half-time.

Julian Dale made it 3-1 just before half-time and both of their star strikers scored again in the second half for a handsome win.

Monkstown got the best of Banbridge at Havelock Park 3-2. It was very tight in the first half but goals from Guy Sarratt and Jazze Henry saw the Dubliners move out of range despite a late Bann riposte.

In another nailbiter, Ben Campbell’s single goal in the second quarter saw YMCA prevail against 2020 finalists UCD. An early stroke was repelled by the students before the Y went ahead via a great team goal and they survived through to the end, enduring a disallowed goal in the fourth quarter to add to the tension.

Elsewhere, there were comfortable wins for Glenanne, Three Rock Rovers and Lisnagarvey. Shannon Boucher’s hat trick helped the Glens beat Cork Harlequins 4-0; he got the only goal of the first three quarters as the visitors defended brilliantly but the Glens ran up three more in the end.

Rovers got over a slow start to beat Corinthian 5-1 as Ben Johnson’s corner goal settled nerves before Ryan Spencer (two), Evan Jennings and Ali Empey netted.

Garvey were the big winners, showing a clean set of heels to Leinster league side Rathgar with eight different scorers in a 10-0 win.

In the Irish Hockey Trophy, there were over 50 goals scored across eight ties. Ulster sides dominated with Portadown, Bangor, Belfast Harlequins, Queen’s, South Antrim and North Down all going through.

Dublin North are the sole Leinster side left after their win over Bray, Shane Dempsey scoring a double. Catholic Institute hold up the Munster side of things with Chris Ryan’s four goals underpinning their 5-2 success at Ballynahinch.

Men
Irish Senior Cup – Round 2: Annadale 1 (C Robson) Pembroke 5 (A Sothern 3, J Dale 2); Banbridge 2 (L Rowe, S Farson) Monkstown 3 (M Gibbons, G Sarratt, J Henry); Cork C of I 3 (A Moffett, P Sweetnam, S Wolfe) Bandon 3 (I Perrott, R Smyth, D Jennings), C of I win shoot-out 5-4; Glenanne 4 (S Boucher 3, G Shaw) Cork Harlequins 0; Lisnagarvey 10 (J Lorimer 2, A Edgar 2, T Chambers, C Chambers, O Kidd, B Nelson, D Nelson, R Getty) Rathgar 0; Railway Union 2 (J McKeever, R Abbott) Cookstown 2 (J Haycock, M Anderson), Cookstown win shoot-out 2-1; Three Rock Rovers 5 (R Spencer 2, B Johnson, E Jennings, A Empey) Corinthian 1 (C Futcher); YMCA 1 (B Campbell) UCD 0

Irish Hockey Trophy – Round 1: Ashton 2 (J Sweetnam 2) Portadown 5; Avoca 1 (A Tutty) South Antrim 4 (J Kamalarajah, C Henry, B Clarke, M Taylor); Ballynahinch 2 (J Campbell 2) Catholic Institute 5 (C Ryan 4, T Gaffney); Bangor 5 (R Burgess 2, Z McKee 2, M Sanchez) Kilkenny 3 (D McClure 2, E Dore); Belfast Harlequins 6 (M Patterson 2, C Lemon 2, C Wilson, N Anderson) UCC 2 (C McCormack, L Hennigan); Dublin North 2 (A Dempsey 2) Bray 1 (G Evans); NICS 2 Queens University 8 (C Irwin 3, H Scott 2, S McCabe 2, J Taggart); North Down 4 (H Templeton, P Templeton, J Spratt, G Bailie) Newry 2 (K McWilliams, J Taylor)