MEN'S HOCKEY:THREE WINS in three days for Ireland over Scotland but the more important part of an impressive weekend's hockey at Banbridge will be the knowledge new Irish coach Paul Revington will have picked up over the weekend.
While the new boss does not take over in an official capacity until the New Year, Revington introduced himself to the players and presented his ideas of what he expects from the players on Saturday night.
His presence certainly galavinised the squad as Friday's scrappy 3-1 win was added to by a scintillating 5-1 victory on Saturday - in which Three Rock Rovers hitman Mitch Darling cracked a hat-trick.
Yesterday's 2-1 win, though, will have been the most useful for Revington as he got his first glimpse of some of Ireland's emerging talent.
At a media briefing on Friday evening, the Irish Hockey Association explained that the incoming coach had impressed in the interview phase with his knowledge of the current Irish men's squad but, hailing from South Africa, quite what he knew of the likes of Cookstown's Colin Donaldson, Mossley's Simon Todd or Cork C of I's Jonny Bruton is probably negligible.
The match was initially billed as an uncapped Test match but was hastily recategorised with the upshot of the trio gaining their first caps.
Bruton, no doubt, impressed scoring the decisive goal in the 54th minute, finishing off a superb move instigated by Mikey Watt and Alan Sothern.
Fielding a virtual second team, with only Karl Burns having gained over 50 caps, Ireland began brightly, rewarded by Sothern's 13th-minute drag-flick. William Marshall levelled from an acute angle for Scotland on the half-time hooter ahead of a tetchy second half.
Bruton struck the winner before Geoff McCabe and Adam Pritchard were sent to the bin, preluding a series of Scotland corners but substitute goalkeeper David Harte stood firm. Scottish skipper Niall Stott picked up his second sin-binning of the weekend late on, easing the pressure on the Irish defence to complete a positive weekend all round.
