HOCKEY/European Championships/Ireland 1 Spain 1:Mark Gleghorne scored an early goal and then all 15 Irish players used yesterday defended like men possessed to earn a precious morale-raising point against Spain on the opening day of the European hockey championships in Manchester.
The reigning champions were caught napping at the start of proceedings at Bellevue Stadium, exposed by John Jermyn's exuberant sally from right back and the Corkman's shot-cum-cross was shunted home by Gleghorne lurking at the far post, with less than 90 seconds played.
The Spaniards, ranked three in the world, were put off their stroke by the early setback and they failed to rattle goalkeeper David Harte's pads up to the interval. The 19-year-old was given the best of cover by a rearguard in which Paddy Brown was outstanding.
Ireland might have gone two ahead shortly after the break had Timmy Cockram made firmer contact with the ball as he came sliding in across the Astroturf to meet an Andy Barbour cross but his effort spun wide.
Instead it was young Harte's turn to justify his surprise selection ahead of the more experienced Mark Ruddle, with a string of saves at the six penalty corners forced by the Spanish in a torrid quarter hour. He was beaten just the once, on 43 minutes, though even then he managed to lay the tip of his stick on Zavier Ribas's low drag at the set piece. Otherwise, he was coolly immaculate, saving in turn from Sergi Enrique and the thrice denied Ribas.
Ireland tried to move forward at speed whenever they won possession in midfield and a couple of late raids from the ever-eager Barbour reminded the Spaniards they were up against a side well capable of lasting the 70 minutes.
IRELAND: D Harte, P Brown, R Gormley, S Butler, M Gleghorne, J Jermyn, E Magee, G Shaw, A Barbour, M Black, I Lewers. Subs: K Burns, M Irwin, D Hobbs, T Cockram.
SPAIN: F Cortes, F Fabregas, A Fabregas, E Tubau, R Alegre, J Lainz, V Sojo, X Ribas, R Garza, S Enrique, D Alegre. Subs: F Dinares, J Fernandez, A Sala, E Arbos, R Oliva.
Umpires: C Blasch (Germany),
G Curran (Scotland).
