Magnificent comeback helps Garvey on their way to Europe’s last 16

GARVEY produced an extraordinary come back on Saturday in their EHL group match against French champions Lille in East Grinstead.

With just 16 minutes left Garvey were three goals adrift and looking very much as if their impact on the tournament was about to be erased at the first hurdle.

They then stormed into the French with skill and passion and gradually pulled the game back to effect a 3-3 draw and had they been given a further five minutes they surely would have won this incredible hockey match.

Garvey began the game knowing that they had to get a result out of what was their least difficult task of the week end and were very composed in the opening 10 minutes with a move involving Steven Arbuthnot on the left ending with his fine cross going untouched close the goal.

Stuart McNeice also had a half chance in the 9th minute but under pressure he shot past the post.

Lille got into the game in the 12th minute with two quick breaks the second of which was a rocket shot which sailed over the bar on the French attacker’s reverse side and a minute later they scored against the run of play. A speculative move on the left and a missed tackle led to winger Mondaco slipping the ball past Garvey keeper John Tormey at his right post.

Another piece of slack defending allowed the French too much room in the circle and Clin put Garvey two goals behind with a neat shot past Tormey to extend Garvey’s problems.

These two goal had been scored within the space of two minutes and it left Garvey with a mountain to climb after 14 minutes. Another Lille attack almost led to a third goal but the first quarter ended with the same two goal deficit and time to reflect on their unfortunate situation.

The second quarter was a much more even affair with Garvey able to penetrate the Lille defence but without creating a clear goal scoring opportunity and Lille content to maintain their two goal cushion.

The 29th minute brought another disaster for the Garvey team when a deflection on the edge of their circle saw the French forward Schambert make the best of his fortune and he worked his way past three Garvey defenders before finding the far corner of the net.

Half time came with Garvey facing the daunting task of pulling back three goals to give themselves any chance of keeping in the tournament but Lille were the first to create a scoring chance with the opening penalty corner of the game in the 39th minute. John Tormey came to Garvey’s rescue with two fine saves and a minute later he was again the saviour with a save from close range.

Garvey did force their first set piece of the match in the 45th minute but Timmy Cockram’s drag flick was brilliantly saved by the French keeper Dierkens and immediate the third quarter was completed with the same score line.

Garvey, knowing that their fate was almost decided threw everything into the last quarter of the game and in the 54th minute they grabbed a life line with their opening goal. It came from a superbly executed Timmy Cockram penalty corner drag flick which flashed into the roof of the Lille net.

The goal simply inspired the Garvey squad which began to camp in the Lille 22 and in the 57th minute they pulled back a second goal created by the magic of Mark Raphael; he somehow dribbled through a number of Lille defenders in a tight situation and worked the ball to Philip Stirling who did not hesitate to sweep it into the Lille goal past the groping French goalkeeper.

There was little resistance from the crumbling French defence and wave after wave of Garvey attacks had to pay off eventually. Two more penalty corners were repelled by the struggling Lille defence with the Dierkens bringing off a magnificent save in the 62nd minute but Garvey were not to be denied.

Their fifth and sixth corners were also blocked but in the 65th minute Timmy Cockram brought the large crowd of Garvey supporters to their feet when his drag flick found the bottom right hand corner of the net to bring the score to an amazing 3-3 with still five minutes left to play.

The final minutes were to say the least, frantic but Garvey could not manage to grab a winning goal to put the icing on their cake but were more than satisfied with their unlikely 3-3 draw once again showing the Garvey resilience and leaving themselves a chance of qualifying with the second match against Dutch aces Bloemendaal still to come on Saturday.

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