Raphoe pipped by Rathgar in exciting Irish Hockey Trophy clash

Raphoe 1st XI hosted Dublin opposition Rathgar at The Royal and Prior grounds in the Irish Hockey Trophy – and lost out by the odd goal in five.

Raphoe 2 Rathgar 3

The first half was a 50/50 contest, with both teams winning several short corners to try and gain the advantage in the match. Raphoe managed to take a lead into half-time when a series of short corners finally culminated in a conversion by Jonny Long.

The short corner was won when Simon Goudie found Evan Lyttle in left midfield, unfamiliar territory for the Raphoe defence, but his pass to Keith Meehan was cut out by the Rathgar defender. 

Meehan however made a great tackle and won back the ball, worked his way into the circle and won the short corner that Raphoe took the lead from. The half ended 1 – 0 to the home team.

The second half didn’t get off to a great start, Rathgar won a short corner in the first few minutes of the half. From the resulting corner the Dublin team won a stroke, when their short corner routine came off Keith Meehan’s chest stopping the ball from crossing the line. The Rathgar striker slotted home his stroke to make it 1-1.

This dampened Raphoes spirits and put wind in Rathgars sails. Rathgar soon took the lead when they won another short corner and it beat Davy Moore in the Raphoe goal.

Raphoe pushed to get back level with another goal but the Rathgar defence stayed strong and soon added a third goal when they countered on Raphoe and had men over to simply slot the ball under an on rushing Davy Moore.

Raphoe pushed and pushed to get back in the game with 15 minutes to go.

Efforts from open play by Jonny Long and Jordan Devenney were well defended and Raphoes short corner routine just wasn’t working.

Raphoe got one back when a high press from the home team won the ball back and Ian McGonigle found Stephen Cleverly on top of the circle to hit a shot through the Rathgar keepers legs. 

Raphoe tried in vain to get one more to take it to penalties, however they ran out of time.

Raphoe turn their attention back to the league next week when they travel to Comber to take on North Down.

RAPHOE 2ND XI 

Raphoes seconds had a day to forget as they went down 7-0 at home to a well drilled Portadown team. 

At 3-0 down Raphoe had chances from Willie Magee and Adam West to reduce the deficit, but the Portadown keeper pulled off some fine saves to keep his clean sheet intact.

Portadown went on to score four more goals after these chances from the Raphoe team.

The second now travel to Bangor next week looking to get back to winning ways.