Greenfields complete league and cup double

GREENFIELDS added the Connacht Senior Cup to their League triumph to complete the provincial double – a feat which hadn’t been achieved by the club in recent memory – although they had to dig deep to achieve the win on Saturday against a determined and hungry Galway Hockey club side.

The match started in frantic fashion with Greenfields on top in the possession stakes. A yellow card early in the half for one of the Greenfields defenders for a poorly timed challenged saw them down to ten players and this disrupted their momentum.

Galway began to gain some possession of their own but Sinead Collins had only one or two saves to make of any note in the first half. Greenfields on the other hand had the better of the chances in the first half with come good attacking play leading to chances, but Michala Van Der Walt in the Galway goal was dealing with everything being thrown at her.

Just on the half time whistle, Greenfields were awarded a short corner but Mary Healy’s shot was cleared by the Galway defence and the score remained at 0-0.

The second half continued in the same vein with Greenfields tipping the possession scales, but inaccurate passing and resolute Galway defending kept the match scoreless.

The deadlock was broken ten minutes into the second half when Galway were awarded a short corner after some attacking pressure. The initial shot from Emma Glanville hit the foot of first runner Elaine Hall, but the umpire played advantage and the ball fell to Hannah Gormley, who coolly slotted her shot into the corner of the net to give Galway the lead.

Greenfields upped the pace of their game in search of an equaliser and to keep their dream of a league and cup double alive. Fresh legs in the form of Siobhan Divilly was introduced and Greenfields began to create goal scoring chances, but the Galway defence stood firm. In this period, Mary Healy, Trish Garret and Elaine Hall went close to scoring but the score remained at 1-0 to Galway.

Full report in this week’s City Tribune