Hockey: Ireland claim historic win over Britain

Ireland 2 Great Britain 1

Katie Mullan hailed a “special” performance as Ireland recorded their first ever win over reigning Olympic champions Great Britain in the second of the Softo Series games at Queen’s University.

While the tie was uncapped, it still represents another significant moment for the Green Army against a side they are grouped against in Tokyo at the Olympics later this summer.

It came off the back of a superb second half performance with Chloe Watkins providing a sublime equaliser on her backhand after an excellent turnover.

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Róisín Upton then won the tie in the last 10 minutes from the penalty spot after Anna O’Flanagan was hacked down by Lizzie Neal.

GB had bossed the first half with Ireland thankful to Lena Tice’s amazing goal line stop and some astute Ayeisha McFerran saves to limit the damage to just Laura Unsworth’s tip-in.

“We’ve never beaten GB before and they’re Olympic gold medallists so it is pretty special,” skipper Katie Mullan said. “The character of the girls in the second half was second to none and I am so proud of our performance.

“At international level, it is fine margins and we fought the tough fight to stay in it in the first half. We came out guns blazing in the second half and nothing was going to stop us.”

On Saturday, GB drew first blood when a controlled second half performance earned them a 2-1 scoreline. Upton’s seventh minute penalty stroke had Ireland 1-0 up at half-time but the visitors stormed back in the third quarter with Lily Owsley - the game’s key performer - finishing off a classy move.

And a long range pump from Giselle Ansley found Sarah Roberston all alone to grab the winner 14 minutes from the end. The series concludes on Tuesday afternoon with a 3pm start time.

Ireland: A McFerran, N Evans, K Mullan, S McCay, L Tice, B Barr, C Watkins, L Colvin, H Matthews, S Torrans, A O'Flanagan.

Subs: L Murphy, M Carey, R Upton, H McLoughlin, S Hawkshaw, N Carey, D Duke.

Great Britain: M Hinch, S Jones, S Evans, E Rayer, S Townsend, S McCallin, L Unsworth, L Wilkinson, L Neal, H Pearne-Webb, A Toman.

Subs: S Robertson, I Petter, L Owsley, F Crackles, G Ansley.

Umpires: A Keogh, L Coughlan.