Ireland 3-3 Czech Rep (Mens) European Hockey

Ireland took on the Czech Republic this morning in their final encounter of this European Hockey Championships.

Ireland bossed the majority of play and possession in the first half but two well taken opportunities by the Czech Republic saw them with an unlikely two goal lead in the 12th minute. The first goal coming off an Irish stick when Lukas Plochy laid back a ball for his attacker but a green stick tipped it past David Harte in goals. Just eight minutes later the Czech Republic laid in a super shot from outside of the D picking up Bernatek for a great deflection leaving Harte no chance to go 2-0 up.

Ireland continued to retain the lion's share of ball possession and their dominance finally paid off when Conor Harte converted Ireland's fourth penalty corner chance with a low hard drag in the 17th minute. But despite dominating play Ireland trailed 1-2 at the break.

Ireland were put on the back foot once again on the 58th minute when Vudmaska picked up a pass to first time it over an oncoming David Harte to make it 3-1. Ireland knowing they needed a draw to retain A status in Europe continued knocking out goal scoring opportunities but the goals were hard to come by especially with an on form Neusser in goals.

Ireland's persistence finally paid dividends with a lovely Stuart Loughrey sliding reverse stick deflection off Peter Caruth's cross in the 58th minute to bring it back to 3-2. Just two minutes later Captain John Jackson levelled with a switch on the penalty corner routine in the 60th minute.

Ireland were not out of danger and had to put in some good defensive work to thwart any break away Czech chances but they held their nerve knowing that a draw was good enough to ensure they retained their status in top flight European hockey.

Commenting after the game Coach Meredith was obviously pleased at achieving their number one goal of maintaining A status "Obviously today was all about the result and retaining our A Division status and European ranking, so from that perspective, we have achieved one of our key objectives. The manner in which we achieved that result really illustrated some of the group's core strengths, showing tremendous resilience and strength of character in how we went about working our way back into the game twice from a two goal deficit."

"Despite the fact that we controlled possession and managed the game on the ball pretty well, the goals we conceded are a good example of areas we need to improve on if we want to progress and are indicative of areas that in the end cost us our place in a semi-final when we had one more goal against us from a team ranked 11 places above us."

"The contribution from younger players in their first major tournament was a highlight and the fact that we are able to not only be competitive with the world's best, but retain our current ranking in a rebuilding phase is something really positive to take away."

"Moving forward it would certainly assist our growth substantially if elements of the Irish corporate world can also see what positive role models we have representing the country and what a great product Hockey is at this elite level and look to align themselves with a group of committed, hardworking athletes as we move toward the qualification process for the Rio Olympic Games"