Feel the Ire – Arul’s boys go down despite controlling game

PETALING JAYA: The national men’s hockey squad failed to get the better of Ireland despite having control of the game, going down 2-3 in a friendly at Lisnagarvey Hockey Club in Hillsborough, Northern Ireland.

Ireland started aggressively with Sam Hyland scoring a field goal as early as the second minute before Conor Empey doubled the lead six minutes later through another field attempt.

Both players were making their first appearances for Ireland.

It was only towards the end of the third quarter that Malaysia pulled back through a field goal from Mohd Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal in the 45th minute and a penalty corner from Muhd Razie Abdul Rahim seven minutes later.

However, Empey emerged as the hero for Ireland – ranked world No. 14, two rungs below Malaysia – when he converted a penalty corner three minutes before the final whistle.

National coach A. Arulselvaraj admitted that his men need to defend their own area better and not waste the penalty corner chances that come their way.

“I’m a bit disappointed with this result because we controlled the game well and we were rewarded with five penalty corners compared to Ireland’s one and they managed to finish it off.

“In terms of scoring chances, we also had more than Ireland and the setback today was in terms of defence and strength to handle the ball in our own area,” he said.