India 1-0 Ireland
Ireland fell to an agonising last-minute defeat against host nation India in the FIH Pro League on Friday.
Playing in front of a partisan crowd of over 20,000 supporters at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, this was always going to be a tough task for the Green Machine.
India are currently helmed by former Ireland coach Craig Fulton, whose daughter Milla has been capped at senior level by Ireland at indoor hockey.
For most of the match it looked as if they would cancel each other out. India seemed well able to counter whatever Ireland threw at them in attack while Ireland defended as if their lives depended on it.
The opening stages were fairly even, and it was no major surprise that it was scoreless at the end of the first quarter. Ireland and India played out another quarter of cagey strategic chess like hockey and it was even less of a surprise that it was still 0-0 at half-time.
In the third quarter Akashdeep Singh had the ball in the net but Jamie Carr had been fouled in the build-up.
India started the final quarter strongly forcing two penalty corners the first of which Harmanpreet Singh launched goalward and was denied by the excellent Carr.
Jeremy Duncan was green-carded in the 52nd minute temporarily reducing Ireland to 10 players.
And in the 59th minute, just when it appeared Ireland had done enough to hang on for a first ever point in the FIH Pro League, Gujant Singh scored from the edge of the D to break Irish hearts.
"While we defended well, I still thought we created chances in attack," Ireland head coach Mark Tumilty said afterwards.
"I feel for Jamie Carr tonight, he’s annoyed with that last-minute goal. It was one of those unfortunate goals.
"We’ve changed as the week has gone on, what we have proven is that we have grown. We’ve had to play a different shape than we normally play both with and without the ball and that’s proved advantageous to us.
"We want to come home from India with some points on the board. We are going in the right direction. We’re up against the best teams in the world, most of whom are full-time professional athletes, but we’ve shown that we can compete at this level. We need to build on that, take a few chances and get our corners firing."
Ireland: Jamie Carr, Luke Madeley, John McKee, Daragh Walsh, Shane O’Donoghue, Sean Murray (Capt), Peter McKibbin, Jeremy Duncan, Peter Brown, Lee Cole, Nicholas Page
Subs: Matthew Nelson (4 mins), Kevin O’Dea (6 mins), Michael Robson (6 mins), Jonathan Lynch (4 mins), Sam Hyland (6 mins), Ben Johnson (6 mins)
India: Krishan Bahadur Pathak (GK), Jarmanpreet Singh, Abhishek Akashdeep Singh, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Gurjant Singh, Harmanpreet Singh ( Capt), Nilakanta Sharma, Akashdeep Singh, Amit Rohidas
Subs: Sumit (5 mins), Amir Ali (3 mins), Raj Kumar Pal (4 mins), Rabichanrdra Moirangthem (5 mins) Sukhjeet Singh, Araijeet Singh Hundal (4 mins), Sreejesh Parattu Raveen Prav (GK) (16 mins)
