Ireland get off the mark as heroic Sherriff fires a hat-trick

Ireland 7 Belarus 3

With a hat-trick from goal-scoring ace Justin Sherriff and further goals from Mark Raphael, Stephen Butler, Andy Barbour and Mark Irwin, Ireland go into the game against Wales with a degree of confidence, even though the Welsh themselves opened promisingly with a 4-2 win against Russia.

“In a competition of this nature, every game is a final,” Passmore said after Ireland’s win, adding: “The game against Wales is our next final.”

Reflecting on the game against Belarus, the coach said the eastern Europeans were not perhaps as much of a push-over as the scoreline might suggest. “Their style is something we don’t see in our part of the world very often, so you did get the unexpected from them and that took us a little while to adjust to,” he said.

Not that Ireland showed early signs of hesitancy - they were 2-0 up after four minutes with Raphael and Sherriff on target. The latter would claim a memorable hat-trick, one better than the next.

Belarus pegged one back through their play-maker Ihar Pakhalchuk from a ninth minute penalty and after that the game settled into an inconclusive period where the Irish battled to overcome the awkward style of their opponents.

It took until the 33rd minute before Sherriff again underlined his potency, causing mayhem in the Belarus defence, ironically after Ireland messed up a short corner routine. Just after half time, he scored again with another mazy goal which left the Belarus defence bamboozled. Stephen Butler then knocked in a short corner and Andy Barbour scored another to put the game out of reach.

The Belarussians did not lie down, despite having endured a torturous bus journey to Rome from Minsk, and with the score at 6-1 they got two back through Cherapandu, before Mark Irwin closed the game out in the 63rd minute with Ireland’s seventh.

Sherriff said that what pleased the players most about yesterday’s performance was the fact the squad worked so harmoniously to achieve the result.

“Everyone worked their socks off for each other and that’s a good sign of a team. We have a squad of 18 players and any one of them can do a job for the team. Obviously I’m delighted to get a hat-trick, but it was the team performance which mattered most,” he said.

Sherriff says while Wales have a very tough and physical squad, he did not think they had the same depth of talent as Ireland.

“While the game will be a tough one, I don’t think their squad is as strong as ours,” the big centre forward commented.

Goalie Wes Bateman was another happy with the Irish performance.

“It’s good to get that one over us, because you have to put these teams away when you get the chance,” he said.

Passmore concurred, saying that while the Irish were able to vary their play a little more than they usually could against top opposition, it would be a different matter against Wales.

“Wales play to their strengths and they are very hard to break down,” the coach said. “They can score goals too and put seven past Poland recently as well as the four they got here against the Russians. But my players are coming into their best form and I think they showed that today.

“We came here a little early to acclimatise to the hot conditions, but the weather has been so poor, this game was our first warm weather workout and I think that might help us.”

Encouragingly for Ireland, on the other side of the draw yesterday, Austria beat the hosts Italy 5-4, which may throw the anticipated meeting of Ireland and the hosts in the semis off kilter.

IRELAND: W. Bateman, J. Black, P. Brown, D. Smyth, B. Waring, S. Butler, M. Raphael, M. Black, J. Sherriff, M. Irwin, G. Shaw.

Rolling subs: A Barbour, G. Elliot, D. Hobbs, I Lewers.