HOCKEY / European Championships: Ireland 3 Italy 2 To a large degree, as coach John Clarke conceded, Ireland's final game at the European Nations Cup in Barcelona yesterday encapsulated their entire tournament.

Leading 3-0 with five minutes to go they finished by having to weather an Italian comeback that reduced their advantage to a single goal, but they survived to take ninth place in the finals. It should, though, have been a whole lot more comfortable, but it's been a fortnight of 'shoulds'.

"They have displayed that characteristic throughout their games, the inability to put teams away," said Clarke, unimpressed by the late fright. "Nervousness, frustration, apprehension, I don't know, you can put it down to any of those things, but we should have had this game won by half-time. The same characteristic has cost us dearly in this tournament."

Ireland ambled in to a 2-0 lead after just 11 minutes, Stephen Butler converting their first short corner of the game in the second minute and Mark Irwin benefiting from yet more Justin Sherriff brilliance on the right, with Chris Jackson twice coming close to extending the lead with shots that flashed just wide of either post.

Paddy Brown and Jason Black helped steady what has often been a fragile defence at these finals as the Italians attempted to up their game in the latter stages of the half, with Butler and Jackson commanding and dominant in midfield, and a leisurely victory appeared to be sealed when substitute John Jermyn swept home Ireland's fourth corner of the game in the 55th minute.

Irish victories, though, are rarely leisurely, although this one night have been if Jermyn had experienced more fortune - the forward, who impressed when he replaced the tiring Sherriff (who also took a knock on his ankle) for much of the second half, had a shot cleared off the line by Mirko Faggian and fired just over and wide right when set up by Karl Burns and Butler.

Italy responded by winning five corners in a three minute spell at the death, with Massimo Lanzano converting two, low to Nigel Henderson's right and left. Buoyed, the Italians threatened to take the game, unthinkably from an Irish point of view, in to extra time, but Ireland held on. Just.

"You don't rest on your laurels when you finish ninth in a tournament, so the planning for 2005 must start now," said Clarke.

IRELAND: N Henderson (capt), K Burns, E Lutton, P Brown, J Black, A Barbour, C Jackson, S Butler, D Hobbs, J Sherriff, M Irwin. Subs: G Elliott, M Raphael, G Shaw, J Jermyn.