WOMEN'S HOCKEY LEINSTER JACQUI POTTER CUP FINAL: Hermes 0 Railway Union 0 (Aet: Hermes won 2-1 on penalty strokes): THERE WAS a time when the Leinster Cup was something of a bogey competition for Hermes, their triumph in 2002 – following defeats in three of the previous five finals – their first in 24 years.

Now? They just can’t stop winning the trophy, named in honour of the late Irish hockey great Jacqui Potter, their victory over Railway Union on penalty strokes yesterday their third-in-a-row and their fourth in five years.

After normal and extra-time had failed to produce a goal Emma Gray sealed the victory for Colin Stewart’s side with a superb save low to her left from Cecelia Joyce’s stroke. By then Railway had put three of their first four strokes wide, only Kate Dillon scoring, with Sínead McDonnell and Chloe Watkins converting for Hermes.

It was a testament to the fitness of the eight Railway and three Hermes players who were on senior interprovincial duty at the weekend, some of them playing their fourth game in five days yesterday, that the pace of the final rarely relented, even deep in to extra-time.

But, despite the best efforts of both attacks, the defences won out, Railway’s Sarah McDonald and Hermes’s Sínead McDonnell – who blocked one goalbound effort and made a critical interception in the circle in the last minute of normal-time – particularly impressive.

Hermes had the better of the first half, their midfield of Christine Quinlan, Linda Caulfield and Aoife Harte largely succeeding in cutting off the supply to their opponents’ attack, but Railway came alive after the break, Emma Smyth, on the left of midfield, at the heart of most of her team’s best work.

Scoring opportunities, though, were rare, Nicola Evans denied by Railway goalkeeper Helen Stevenson after five minutes, Jean McDonnell shooting just wide after Smyth had set her up in the Hermes circle late in the first half.

In the second period Smyth was thwarted by Gray in a one-on-one, the Hermes goalkeeper later saving from McDonnell’s short-corner strike.

But while Railway, on the verge of succeeding Hermes as Leinster champions, threatened from their speedy counter-attacks the cup holders stood firm, Aoife McCarthy and Jenny Kinch at the centre of their defence and McDonnell and Niamh Atcheler on the flanks, consistently frustrating the efforts of Railway’s prolific front three, Joyce, McDonnell and Kate McKenna.

Railway had already beaten Hermes home and away in the league this season, and need just three wins from their last five games to be certain of the Leinster title, but their hopes of a provincial league and cup double were ended in the lottery that is a strokes’ shootout.

They had reached the final by beating UCD on strokes, but yesterday it was Hermes who held their nerve. The bogey days are long gone, Hermes, it seems, have forgotten how to lose the Jacqui Potter Cup.

HERMES: E Gray, N Atcheler, A McCarthy (co-capt), J Kinch, S McDonnell (co-capt), C Quinlan, L Caulfield, A Harte, N Evans, J Burke, A O’Flanagan. Subs: S Greene, G Pinder, D Duke, S Sloan, C Watkins.

RAILWAY UNION: H Stevenson, E Dolan, E Lucey, S McDonald, I Joyce (capt), E Dillon, S Walsh, E Smyth, C Joyce, J McDonnell, K McKenna. Subs: K Dillon, K O’Flynn, R Hutchinson, H de Burgh Whyte, P O’Dwyer.

Umpires: SA Fanagan and C Metchette.