Irish Women strike late to draw

Hermes' Lisa Jacob struck late in Edinburgh to earn Darren Smith's Electric Ireland Irish Women's team a 2-2 draw vs. Scotland in the first of two tests on a day when Kate Dillon & Deirdre Duke earned their first senior caps for the Green Army. Ireland started the game brightly going close within a minute as Jacob saw her shot saved by Cochrane in the Scottish goal. It didn't take long for the breakthrough to come though as Ireland raced into a 1-0 lead as Audrey O'Flynn drilled a penalty corner low into the bottom corner.

Ireland continued to create chances in the early exchanges with Jacob going close again and Nicola Gray seeing her goal from a penalty corner chalked off for dangerous play. Scotland slowly but surely grew into the game despite the early setback and forced three penalty corners in a row midway through the first half. O'Flynn went close again from a penalty corner in the 28th minute before Scotland's Nikki Kidd levelled the game up with a powerful drag flick on 30 minutes. Both sides headed for the break with the score 1-1.

Scotland started the 2nd half well and Kidd again went close with a penalty corner that went just wide in the 47th minute and was on hand minutes later to fire an almost identical penalty corner to give Scotland a 2-1 lead. Ireland pushed on in an effort to get back in the game and went close through O'Flanagan on more than one occasion. In the end, Ireland grabbed their equaliser in the final minute of play when debutant Kate Dillon worked her way down the left and slid the ball to Lisa Jacob to slot home for a deserved draw.

Speaking to hockey.ie after the game, coach Darren Smith said "It's great to be back together and playing international hockey, the more time we can have in this environment the better we will become. I was very happy with the new members of the squad who showed that this environment is one where they can make an impact. I was also happy with the pace and endeavour but we do need to value the ball more and look to be more considered when looking to structure our play. Tomorrow will be an opportunity to have another hit out, improve and then it will be on to face Canada in Dublin in a little over a weeks' time"