MEN'S HOCKEY/World Cup qualifier: Ireland's World Cup aspirations hang by the flimsiest of threads after Egypt overturned a 2-1 deficit with a couple of late goals at the qualifying tournament in Changzhou yesterday.
The match statistics showed Ireland broke into their opponents' circle 25 times and won five penalty corners, while Egypt made just 12 incursions but extracted two goals from their four corners.
Realistically, Dave Passmore's side now probably need to produce a mould-breaking win over Pakistan - 3-2 winners over England yesterday - in tomorrow's concluding game in Pool A to have any lingering chance of making the World Cup grade.
Passmore raised a few eyebrows when he omitted striker Justin Sherriff - second top scorer at the European championships three years ago - from his 16.
The coach cited tactical reasons but the move reflected the failure of the lanky Pembroke Wanderers forward to make any impact in China.
Egypt came out of the traps aggressively, with Ahmed Mohamed (on the books of Havant in the English league) testing veteran left back Jason Black repeatedly for pace.
Early on, Mohamed raced from halfway to fire in a strong shot, only to find goalkeeper Charlie Henderson well placed to save.
Having weathered the initial storm, Ireland looked the more assured side, except when it came to corners, with nothing to show for attempts on 14 and 17 minutes.
John Jermyn failed to put in a shot at the first and Stephen Butler flicked wide at the second. Jermyn showed more enterprise in open play on 22 minutes, finding space on the right to skip through the defence and score with a lovely reverse stick effort.
The advantage evaporated just before half-time when Mohamed Mohamed bamboozled Henderson with a low flick at a corner.
A couple of minutes into the second half, Karl Burns slotted home his first senior international goal with a raised drive.
For the following 26 minutes, Ireland calmly defended their advantage and would have added to it if Cockram had got a touch as the ball flew across the goal from Graham Shaw - or if another corner had not gone a begging.
Such failures were punished on 64 minutes when Hassan Mohamed took a leaf out of Jermyn's book and scored in almost identical style.
Then, Mohammed Mohammed batted in his second on the rebound from a shot at a corner by Ahmed Mohamed.
Meanwhile, the Pakistanis hit ominously good form yesterday when, after struggling in some of their earlier games, they repeated their Commonwealth Games defeat of England.
IRELAND: C Henderson, P Brown, J Black, K Burns, S Butler, M Gleghorne, M Irwin, J Jermyn, A Barbour, M Black, I Lewers. Subs: R Gormley, G Shaw, D Hobbs, T Cockram.
EGYPT: M Omran, M Mohamed, A Mandour, A Mohamed, K Abd El Aziz, S Hagag, A Ahmed, A Metwalli, M El Sayed, M Hosny, T Hussein. Subs: M Abdel Aziz, M Hanafy, A Ahmed, H Mohamed.
Umpires: M Grime (Australia), A Singh (Malaysia).
Other results: Canada 0, Belgium 1 (J Truyens); England 2, (R Mantell, S Mantell) Pakistan 3 (K Mudasser, B Rehan, M Saqlain).
Standings after four rounds: 1 Belgium 10 pts; 2 Pakistan 10; 3 England 9; 4 Ireland 3; Egypt 3; Canada 0.
