Great comeback for Garvey in crucial title race

Lisnagarvey kept their Premier League title hopes alive at Cookstown last Saturday when they turned over a two goal deficit to record a remarkable 3-2 victory.

Playing without the creativity of Mark Raphael and the strength of Daniel Buser in midfield, Garvey were well under par in the first three quarters of the match but staged a great comeback scoring three goals in the final 15 minutes to take the precious league points.

The visitors were strangely quiet in the opening 15 minutes with the very active Cookstown team controlling affairs.

A series of attacks saw the Garvey goal come under some pressure with keeper John Tormey having to make a number of good saves to keep his team in the game. Cookstown missed a ‘sitter’ in the 18th minute but just two minutes later after a scramble in the Garvey circle Gareth Cuddy smuggled the ball over the line for a Cookstown side which totally deserved the lead.

Cookstown added to their tally when the ball fell loose to Stephen Smyth 7 yards out, he swept it past John Tormey to take the home side into an indisputable 2-nil lead in the 28th minute.

As the second half got underway Timmy Cockram was beginning to make his presence felt with a snap shot which Hughes did well to parry from close range.

With 50 minutes gone in a match which Cookstown never looked like losing, suddenly Garvey clicked into action. They forced their first penalty corner in the 55th minute with Hughes having to make two saves in quick succession but a minute later, schoolboy Daniel Nelson worked his way along the bye line before setting up Cockram who made no mistake with his reverse shot.

A great move led to a wonderful goal by Richard Arneill who latched onto the ball on the left of the circle and shelled a reverse shot past Hughes from a 45 degree angle to bring them back to parity with 10 minutes still remaining.

The momentum of the game had swung totally to the visitors and it was no surprise when they grabbed the lead in the 64th minute. Again it was the brilliant Cockram who provided the goal after a superb pass from another schoolboy, Sean Murray and Garvey had brought off a remarkable come back to keep their league hopes alive.