Ireland's seven-a-side footballers had a baptism of fire in their first Pool fixture at the Paralympics this morning, losing 6-0 to World champions, the Ukraine.
Paul Cassin's side fell 4-0 behind by the break of the 30 minute-a-half game at the Helliniko Complex. Taras Dutko struck after 4 minutes, and Andriy Tsukanov made it two seconds later, with a crisply hit 20-yard volley.
Ireland threatened through Gary Messett, the opening ceremony flag bearer, on 14 minutes, but the Bray teenager's shot was well saved by Yevhen Zhuchynin.
22-year-old Dutko bagged another on 22 minutes before Vitaly Trushev headed the eastern Europeans' fourth. After Volodymyr Kabanov had struck the post on the restart, the Ukrainians made victory safe, scoring through Trushev again and Denys Ponomaryov in injury time.
Skipper Finbarr O'Riordan, who also went close to breaking Ireland's duck, said afterwards: "It was a bad result, very disappointing. We came here to play against them, but obviously we didn’t get the start we were hoping for. We were four goals behind in the first half. The score doesn’t reflect the Irish performance."
The 33-year-old midfielder, who has been training with Pat Dolan's Cork City side, has already turned his thoughts to Tuesday's next Pool A fixture. "We have to look towards the next game and get a good result against Argentina," he added.
Elsewhere, young Claire Conway from Belfast competed in the 100m butterfly semi-final.
Conway, an exciting 16 year old talent, recorded a personal best of 1.24.37 but was just outside qualification. In the same heat, the current Australian record holder, Kate Bailey smashed her own World Record of 107.69.
Conway will be delighted to have performed to her maximum and the experienced gained will stand to her as she builds towards future World and European Championships and the next Paralympic Games.
Filed by Rob Wright
