Ireland men’s hockey coach Craig Fulton has praised his team’s second-half performance against Great Britain in the World Hockey League, stating they deserved their draw despite a very poor start.
Ireland went 2-0 down, but pulled back a brace of goals to claim a draw in their opening match of the league campaign.
Fulton revealed his satisfaction, speaking to RTÉ Sport: “It was a good result at the end of the day. We really wanted to get a good result at the end of the day - either a win or a draw.
“I think it was difficult because we played our first game of the tournament on the fourth day, so the guys were bouncing off the walls already. That kind of showed in the first bit of the match: we were in a bubble.
"In the first quarter we were 2-0 down, but once that was out of the way we started to play our patterns. It was more like us, we were more able to control phases of play for longer.
“When playing GB with an Irish team at any time you don’t have to ask the guys to get up, too much. You almost have to calm them down a little bit. There was a lot at stake; a lot of pride at stake as well but also the importance of the tournament and starting well.
“We started well but within eight minutes we were 2-0 down. That wasn’t a great reflection of the possession we had had.”
Ireland’s comeback was down to playing the basics well and sticking to the game plan, according to Fulton, “It was good that it happened [going 2-0 down] because then we got back to basics. The lads stuck to their guns and played the game plan well.
“That was what was good. They responded well and to get the second goal was good.
"The second half we got seven corners in the whole game. The second half was a different story for us.
"We created a lot more but didn’t have the detail to finish it off. At the first time it was the first game but we’ll build on this and look forward to the next game.
“We’ve done a lot of work on GB and it was good to have that homework done.”
