If Dublin University Hockey Club (DUHC) was in a confident mood going into Saturday’s Leinster Division One clash with Corinthians after a 7-1 crushing of Dublin North last week, the team was brought crashing back to earth on a bitterly cold afternoon in St Columba’s College. Despite a second-half fightback from Trinity, the hosts, classy throughout, never looked in real danger and ran out 3-1 winners. The game was overshadowed by a facial injury suffered by Trinity defender Matthew Begley.
Corinthians scored with its first short corner. A pre-rehearsed move ended with a drag flick from Ian Stewart, which flew into the net via a deflection off a Corinthians runner. This was reflective of the play up until this point. With Corinthians firmly in the ascendancy, showcasing the slick hockey that has propelled them to the top of the table with six wins from seven, one could have been forgiven for forecasting a long afternoon for DUHC.
Stewart grabbed his second midway through the first-half after intercepting a hit out from Eoin Buttanshaw. The Corinthians midfielder drove towards the circle, and when his attempted cross broke loose, Stewart was the quickest to react to the waist-high rebound and fired home after eluding desperate outstretched Trinity sticks.
Begley’s injury occurred with just a few minutes remaining in the first-half, when a stray stick caught him square in the face. The left-back was forced to exit the field of play with blood streaming from his face, prompting widespread concern on the Trinity bench. Play was halted for five minutes, giving both sides a chance to take stock of what had been a rather one-sided first-half.
The second-half began in a similar vein, with Corinthians dictating the pace of proceedings. However, the hosts never seriously threatened the Trinity goal, as Rory Nichols and Ian Marron swept up most of the Corinthians attacks without too much difficulty.
Emboldened, DUHC began to play some intricate hockey of its own. Nichols began to find his range, displaying superb vision on a number of occasions to put Cillian Hynes in behind the defence. Robbie O’Hanlon was also unlucky on a number of occasions, with Andrew Sutton in the Corinthians goal making a number of good saves.
However, with Trinity on the hunt for the goal that would get them back into the game, gaps began to open up in defence, and Corinthians looked menacing when it got numbers forward.
With the game increasingly stretched, and both sides showing purpose in attack, it looked inevitable that one of these attacks would come to fruition and end up in the net. And when the goals came, they came all at once. First, Hynes latched onto a clever ball from midfield to race clear of the defence. With O’Hanlon in support, he drew the goalkeeper before squaring it to his striking partner to prod into an open goal.
However, the assembled crowd barely had time to blink before the ball was in the net again, this time at the other end. Conventional wisdom says that the most dangerous time for a team is in the immediate aftermath of scoring, and so it proved here, as DUHC was caught napping by some lightning-fast hockey from the hosts. It ended with Irish international Jonny Bruton rounding DUHC goalkeeper Hugh Lavery for the easiest of tap-ins.
This was a sucker punch for Trinity, ending any hopes of a comeback. Both sides had chances before the end, but ultimately Corinthians was good value for its win. For DUHC, it was a harsh reminder of the standard of opposition facing them in the upper echelons of the league. Trinity just about holds onto fourth spot, and will hope to get back to winning ways against a struggling Rathgar next Saturday in Santry.
