Raphoe Hockey Club’s Men 1st X1 recorded their fourth league victory of the season with this comfortable home win over bottom-of-the-table Antrim.
Raphoe 8 Antrim 1
Charlie Collins reports from the Royal and Prior School grounds.
The home side always had the better of things in this game and picked up three important league points.
The visitors started well and David Moore saved well from a short corner in the second minute but could do nothing about Dean Wilson’s cracker two minutes later to put Antrim ahead.
Two minutes later Moore denied Wilson a second goal with an excellent save. Raphoe who had started poorly finally got going and we’re in front in the sixth minute when George Patterson and Evan Lyttle combined and Tommy Orr flicked home from close range.
After Tom Eaton and Keith Meehan had both gone close Raphoe grabbed the lead in the 12th minute when Patterson’s superb pass put Irr racing through and the young striker rounded the keeper before slotting home.
It was 3-1 in the 21st minute, a well-worked short-corner involving four Raphoe players ended with Keith Meehan turning Alan Meehan’s shot in the net for 3-1 to the home side. Tommy Orr almost had his hat-trick after an excellent run but his lobbed shot was cleared off the line.
However, there was no rest bite for the visitors and in the 32nd minute, it was 4-1. Another good Raphoe build-up saw a goalbound shot foot-blocked on the line and Keith Meehan converted the resulting penalty flick for his second goal and a comfortable half-time lead for the home team.
The opening twenty minutes of the second-Half were keenly contested with chances at both ends and good saves by both keepers to deny goalbound efforts by both teams. Raphoe finally added the fifth goal, Tommy Orr’s pass put Adrian Crumley racing away and he did brilliantly before setting up Jake Watt to tap home.
Four minutes later Tommy Orr finally completed that deserved hat-trick when he made no mistake after a great pass by Keith Meehan set him up to make it 6-1.
That soon became 7-1, another excellent Raphoe attack ended with Johnny Long setting up James Wilson who drove the ball to the roof of the net from close range.
In the final minute Keith Meehan also completed his hat-trick from close range, Johnny Long again the provided Dom near the end line to round off an impressive and important 8-1 victory for Raphoe Men.
Raphoe have games against four other teams in the bottom six in the table in the next month, three of them away from home but will be hoping to build on this victory to climb up the table.
RAPHOE SQUAD: David Moore, Alan Meehan, Tom Eaton, Zack West, Evan Lyttle, Keith Meehan, Jake Watt, Ian Mc Gonigle, John Watt, Johnny Long, Tommy Orr, James Wilson, Stephen Cleverly, Adrian Crumley, George Patterson.
