Men's Hockey: Northern Ireland v Scotland

It could have easily been twelve, such was the Northern Irish dominance. David Forrester and Duncan Birse, who had good seasons for Edinburgh Uni respectively in goal and centre-half with many matches on the same Peffermill turf on which they lost this game, will have nightmares about the balls and men which flew past them during seventy cold minutes where every NI attack looked like it could lead to a goal. The Scottish side will hope to win their remaining matches to improve their minus-five goal difference, while the NI side will work on open goals and penalty flicks, since all else looks dandy.

Fifty seconds into the game, an Irish short corner was blasted past Forrester’s pad by William Robinson, the tall captain from Queen’s Belfast, whose runs forward and reverse shots were as insistent as a treadmill’s revolutions all game. On eight minutes, Dane Ward picked up a perfect through-ball, which some would say was a mishit, from D to D which was too far from Birse’s reach, and slotted in very expertly for the second goal. Forrester showed his skill blocking a Robinson shot with his stick, and this motivated his team to score their first goal, Andy ‘Soupy’ Campbell tapping in on the NI goalline after captain Paul Martin, leading by example in the midfield, had blasted it into the D. Callum Duke, playing after a few months out with leg problems and a threat whenever he was on the turf, was lucky that the referee played advantage when the ball struck that now-healed leg, as Forrester was called to task again. The NI player who missed an open goal thinking of the half-time whistle will not be named and shamed, mainly because everyone in the ground had shut their eyes expecting to hear ball hit backboard, and Scotland were exceedingly fortunate to go into the break trailing only by one.

The difference between the sides was manifest in the second half. As Scotland tried to work the perfect hockey goal with slick passing and stylish turns befitting such a skilful side – at one stage Gordon Munro sought to beat the entire NI back line at a short corner – NI blasted balls into the D and ran while dribbling into the obstructions in what one may call ‘route one hockey’. Two minutes after the restart, they had goal number three, with Robinson pushing a shot upwards like a frisbee into the middle of the net. As Forrester sprawled to spare Birse’s blushes again, Robinson scored his hattrick goal with a brilliant reverse shot out of nothing; Birse was withdrawn to recover his senses.

Upfront the Scots were frustrated, with Rory McCann and Munro both exasperated in their fruitless chasing. The latter deserved a goal with his incisive play in the NI D, and on fifty minutes he dribbled elastically past two men and, with a big deflection looping up and over all the green and blue shirts, got it, his shot plopping over the line like a stork delivering a baby to an expectant mother. At four goals to two, Edinburgh still had a chance; at five to two, less. Almost the next attack, Stephen Sloan’s long dribble was halted and Ward placed a confident flick to Forrester’s right. As Munro fell to the floor, Gordon aghast, and Forrester excoriated his teammates with an exhortatory roar, nothing was going their way. Even when a ball was flown straight into the midriff of a defender a questionable short corner was given; there is no such thing as a home advantage here, even at two-five down. From it, Gregg Thompson scored his team’s sixth, low and too hard for Forrester. There was a chance for Ward to score his third from another flick – which had been set up on a plate by Duke sliding to keep the ball in play to test his legs – but he generously hit it straight onto Forrester’s pad. Fortunately for NI’s goal difference, Thompson was less gentlemanly, scoring the goal of the match with a flick through his legs from three yards to put the icing on the cherry of a sumptuous feast for the Ulstermen.

With decent forward play throughout by Munro, the mazy Mike Witchell and the shaven-headed Ramsay Bell, the Scotland side can threaten in their remaining matches if they can stop players similar to Robinson, who was the best player on the turf by some distance on a fantastic Tuesday at Peffermill. NI are now favourites to retain the Home Nations men’s hockey title, so long as Robinson nurses his hands and feet.