Irish stay on London trail

It says a lot about where Ireland are and where they want to be that last night’s draw with world number six Korea at the Electric Ireland FIH Road to London Olympic qualifier at a sold-out Belfield was met with disappointment by coach and players alike.

In front of the largest crowd seen at an Irish hockey international match in years, Paul Revington’s side earned a point that keeps their Olympic dreams alive following an attritional encounter.

David Ames put the hosts in the lead on 27 minutes from a superbly-worked penalty corner but Hyun Woo Nam drag-flicked home a second-half equaliser for the visitors.

There will be no fast lane to Sunday’s final for the self-styled ‘green machine’ but the result means their superior goal difference — they’re on plus 17 after three games — should stand them in good stead in the final reckoning.

Positive results are needed against Chile tomorrow (6pm) and Malaysia on Saturday if they are to make Sunday’s winner-takes-all showpiece, and Revington last night admitted his side had work to do.

“I’m disappointed with our performance — that’s what we value most, though the fact we still managed to salvage a point out of an average performance says a lot about this group of players,” he said.

The South African also admitted his side were let down by their discipline, with two yellow cards and three green ensuring Ireland spent the guts of 20 minutes with 10 men as they fell foul of the umpires’ tolerance for back-chat and physical challenges.

“To play against a side like Korea and spend 18 to 20 minutes with a player off the pitch... to try and get rhythm is obviously very difficult. We were our own worst enemies at times.”

Despite entering the game on the back of a 12-0 rout of Ukraine — the second biggest win in their history — Ireland carelessly gave the ball away in the opening stanza while Ames (yellow) and Andy McConnell (green) cooled their heels and Ronan Gormley was lucky to stay on the pitch after cleaning out Hye Sung Hyun.

But Korea couldn’t fashion many clearcut chances during that period and were soon down to 10 themselves as Jong Bok Cha walked after he felled John Jermyn.

Ireland took advantage to earn the game’s first penalty corner, but Jermyn’s drag hit one post and Peter Caruth’s follow-up effort dinged the other upright.

Korea heeded that warning as Jong Hyun Jang sent a drag-flick just wide while Ireland goalkeeper and man-of-the-match David Harte denied Nam Yong Lee from close-range.

Ireland weren’t getting the rub of the green from the umpires but captain for the day Eugene Magee’s quick thinking won their second penalty corner on 27 minutes, leading to the opening goal.

A pre-rehearsed move saw the ball switched left to Timmy Cockram, who found a diving David Ames at the back post to redirect to the roof of the net.

Korea came flying out of the traps in the second-half though, winning a clutch of corners and Hyun Woo Nam eventually broke the hosts’ resistance, dragging low to Harte’s left for 1-1 after 41 minutes.

Cookstown teenager Ian Sloan who nearly won it for Ireland with a mercurial effort with eight minutes to go, beating four players en route to the baseline before flicking high over Myong Ho Lee, but his effort just cleared the crossbar.

Nam Yong Lee swept Korea’s best opportunity over the bar in the dying seconds but of greater concern to Ireland was seeing centre-back Conor Harte stretchered off and taken to hospital, as he took a sickening smack to the head off a mishit Korean cross.

IRELAND: D Harte; R Gormley (capt), C Harte, J Jackson, P Gleghorne; A McConnell, I Sloan, D Ames; M Watt, M Darling, E Magee (capt).

Rolling subs: G McCabe, J Jermyn, P Caruth, T Cockram, S Loughrey.

KOREA: Myung Ho Lee (GK); Dae Keun Oh, Nam Yong Lee, Sueng Il Lee; Sung Hoon Yoon, Hyo Sik You, Jong Bok Cha; Young Jin Kim, Johg Hyun Jang, Hyun Woo Nam.

Rolling subs: Jong Ho Seo (capt), Woon Kon Yeo, Moon Kweon Kang, Hye Sung Hyun, Suk Hoon Cho.

Umpires: M Grime (Australia) & G Simmonds (South Africa).