The Galway Hockey Club’s men’s team has a busy weekend ahead of them with two crucial games coming up.
On Saturday they welcome South Antrim Hockey Club to Dangan at 4.45pm in the second round of the Men’s Irish Hockey Trophy, and on Sunday at 1.30pm they host Belvedere Hockey Club from Ballincollig Co Cork, in Munster Hockey’s division two.
The Galway team is currently second in Munster division two with a game in hand, and they will be hoping to continue their unbeaten run as they push for promotion to division one.
There is good news also for the club’s ladies’ 2nds team who produced the first shock in this year’s Irish Junior Cup when they ousted favourites Pembroke Wanderers in Dublin at the weekend to advance to the second round.
The Galway ladies, although unbeaten this year, were the clear underdogs in this fixture, and early on it looked like the game would go according to expectation when they fell behind before half-time after Pembroke produced a clinically taken penalty corner.
However Louise Conlon, set up by Grainne Black, netted Galway's equalizer with 15 minutes left in the match to send the game into extra time. Still 1-1 after extra time, Galway came out on top in penalty strokes with ex-Irish International Tara Browne in inspirational form in the Galway goal and Roseanne Regan's flick the difference between the two sides.
This great result comes on the back of the ladies 1sts suffering a disappointing loss to Catholic Institute Hockey Club in Limerick in the first round of the ESB Irish Hockey Trophy. The match had been tied 1-1 after extra time, but the Galway ladies lost out in sudden death of penalty strokes.
