Passmore: short corners our undoing

IRISH coach Dave Passmore refused to be disheartened by yesterday’s 5-1 loss to England - and believes his team will bounce back from the defeat.

“In terms of circle penetration we were only beaten 17-15 by England and throughout the game we were a match for them in most areas,” he said.

“It was only in terms of short corners earned that they beat us heavily, 7-2. They scored five times from those opportunities and we only scored once.”

Captain Paddy Brown concurred: “We will not shy away from anything and while this was an undoubted setback, we have to look forward and not back. That’s what we will do.”

Both are confident that the side can regroup ahead of their meeting with a Canadian team that will have taken great confidence after a 1-0 defeat to Pakistan.

“Tournaments of this kind fluctuate a lot and form differs from game to game,” Passmore said, adding: “Pakistan were not on the top of their form here today. But undoubtedly that will change.

“I know the result looks bad for us, but we will actually learn a lot from that. We know we were not good enough at short corners and we will improve. I am not unhappy with the performance of the team, because the only difference between the two sides was Richard Mantell’s short corners.

“This is a guy who has not played with England for a year and he disguised each and every one of them, putting each one right in the corner. It was difficult for the defence to cope with because they had not seen what he can do.

“I don’t think we can complain about umpiring decisions, because hockey is won and lost in the circle and we gave away seven and only got two. If we had won more it might have been different. I am still confident we can turn it around in the short period of time we have before the Canada game.

“We always knew we’d have seven games and wouldn’t win them all.”

Brown shares this optimistic outlook: “We are a tight bunch and we will reflect on what happened and learn the lessons. We will have a different game plan and this early in the tournament we will not be pulling the plug because of one setback. If we had played poorly we’d be gutted, but we didn’t and we’re not.”

In the other game yesterday involving Ireland’s Pool A opponents, Belgium scored a 5-2 win over Egypt. In today’s other ties, England face Egypt, while the Belgians play Pakistan.