Wicklow Hockey Club

Wicklow travelled to Newpark school to play Avoca having suffered a weather-disrupted start to the season and losing 5-2 away to Portrane in their first league match of the season. Avoca, who tend to field one or two ex-internationals, are generally a formidable opponent at this level, but it was Wicklow who got off to the perfect start when good play down the right from Eoin Byrne led to returning centre-forward Stephen Stewart feeding a perfect pass to Richard Woodroofe which he calmly flicked past the Avoca goalie to put the away side 1-0 up.

Avoca soon struck back, however, as a well-worked short corner move culminated in a thunderbolt of a shot which stand-in ‘keeper Andrew Clarke had no chance of saving. Both sides strove to take the lead but the standard of defending was generally high, and the score remained 1-1 at halftime.

Wicklow tightened up their marking in the second half and used the ball much more intelligently in midfield, and both Eamon Madden and Stephen Adams had a hand in Wicklow taking the lead, after good link-up play between the midfiled and forwards presented a good chance for Eoin Byrne, who finished with his usual reliability. Wicklow had their tails up now, and it wasn’t long before Stephen Stewart crowned his comeback by slamming in a shot from a tight angle on the right hand side of the goal to make it 3-1.

Yet Avoca’s heads never went down and they narrowed the deficit after a missed tackle in defence left them with too good an opportunity to miss. Despite some brave defending it is clear that Wicklow miss their injured captain Forbes Vigors and the calmness and cohesion that he brings to the defence. Nevertheless, they restored their two goal advantage with another from the prolific Eoin Byrne, after something of a goalmouth scramble. Young player Victor de Vries, son of Wicklow stalwart Klaas, had a big hand in the lead-up to the goal and made a big contribution throughout the game.

A questionable refereeing decision after what appeared to be a clear case of crossing saw Avoca pull another one back to make it 4-3 in the dying minutes, but they were never going to have enough in their arsenal to equalise, and Wicklow held firm for an important and well-deserved win.