Long season comes to an end for Garvey

LISNAGARVEY 1 MONKSTOWN 2

LISNAGARVEY’S long and tiring season came to an end at Grange Road on Saturday when they lost their semi final IHL match by 2 goals to 1 against Monkstown.

The game was decided inside two minutes of the second quarter when Monkstown produced two superb strikes while Garvey squandered all their chances apart from a late effort and in the end were beaten by a more organised and positive team.

With Timmy Cockram back in the team after a long absence, Garvey were the first to show in the 2nd minute when Cockram crossed for Stuart McNiece but the striker could not make proper contact with the ball and the danger was cleared. At the other end in the 7th minute, Steven Arbuthnot did well to take the ball off the line after Monkstown’s first telling raid.

Garvey did have a half chance in the 10th minute but keeper Sykes came to Monkstown’s rescue and from the very fast break, Gareth Watkins saw a clever shot go over the Garvey cross bar as both teams worked to break the deadlock.

Garvey had their best chance in the 16th minute when Peter MacDonnell did the work along the bye line before Philip Stirling completely missed his shot in the middle of an empty goal and the first quarter ended with the game still scoreless.

Monkstown went close to scoring in the 18th minute but Timmy Cockram went even closer and it took a superb save from his reverse shot by Sykes to maintain parity.

However the 19th and 21st minutes proved pivotal for an result as first Kyle Good scored an incredible goal from wide on the left on his reverse; the ball rocketing into the top right hand corner of the net without John Tormey having time to make a save.

Scarcely had the game restarted when a fine move down Garvey’s left flank produced a great cross which was met by David Carson who again gave John Tormey little chance as he blasted the ball into the roof of the net.

Stunned by two great strikes, it took Garvey a few minutes to regain their composure and when they did Greg Thomspon provided a cross for Stuart McNiece but again no touch resulted and after Kyle Good shot for Monstown had missed the target the first half ended with the score 2-0 to the Dublin team.

Monkstown started the second period with great purpose and forced the opening penalty corner of the match in the 37th minute. Their prolific set piece specialist New Zealander, Andy Ewington thankfully put his drag flick past the post while at the other end Cockram brought a good save out of the Monkstown keeper Sykes in the 41st minute.

Watkins shot over the cross bar on his reverse in the 45th minute when well placed and hard as Garvey tried they could not penetrate the very solid Monkstown defence superbly marshalled by veteran Graham Shaw and the third quarter saw no change in the scoreline.

Monkstown forced their second penalty corner in the 56th but after a switch, the ball was pushed wide of the Garvey goal and with time running out they threw everything at their opponents and were rewarded in the 62nd minute when following their first and only set piece the ball fell to Timmy Cockram who slammed it into the net through a bunch of defenders.

With just five minutes remaining in raised excitement Garvey did all they could to hold on to their IHL but the equaliser simply would not come and after Mark Raphael had shot past the upright in the 68th minute the game was lost to a very composed and dangerous Monkstown side which had been Garvey toughest opposition of the season and proved to be the better side throughout the 70 minutes.

On reflection, Garvey under the coaching of Kyle Lunn had come out of the season with honours especially when they lacked scoring power up front. They had got to the semi final stage of the IHL,were unbeaten in the Premier League and had reached the second stage of the EHL, a feat no other Ulster team has ever accomplished. Perhaps with the introduction of some new blood Garvey will strive for even greater achievements next season.

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