Mossley face Pembroke in battle for place in Irish Senior Cup semi-final

Having squeezed past Belfast Harlequins 5-4 last weekend in a shootout after the match finished 1-1, Ulster side Mossley are straight back into testing conditions this weekend.

Their home Irish Senior Cup quarter-final against Pembroke, who overcame South Antrim 4-3 last week, will decide a semi-final spot, while the remaining clubs are still playing refixed second-round matches.

Pembroke know all about shootouts having lost to Three Rock Rovers on St Stephen’s Day in the Neville Cup final and also know about comebacks from last time out in this competition.

Going 4-0 up before half-time, only to win the fraught match 4-3, should be a salutary lesson for the Irish Hockey League (IHL) side as they travel north for the second week in a row.

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Mossley see Alan Sothern as the most dangerous of the Pembroke forward line. They are right to be concerned: the Irish striker scored twice last weekend and has notched up a very impressive 17 goals in 10 IHL games.

Struggling

There are four Leinster sides remaining with Glenanne travelling to Queens University, Railway Union to Hillsborough to face Lisnagarvey, while Neville Cup winners Three Rock Rovers entertain Cookstown in Grange Road.

Rovers should like the look of this one if IHL form is anything to go by. They sit second on the IHL table, while Cookstown are struggling to move away from the bottom with only Railway below them.

In that respect Railway have the toughest assignment of the weekend facing Lisnagarvey for a place in the quarter-finals. Like Cookstown, Railway have won just one match from 10 outings at IHL level with this week’s opponents, Lisnagarvey, sitting third on the table but with a couple of games in hand.

Jan 13th

Irish Senior Cup: Quarterfinal – Mossley v Pembroke, 2.30pm, The Glade; 2nd round – QUB v Glenanne, Queens 2.30; Lisnagarvey v Railway Union, 3.00pm Comber Road; Three Rock Rovers v Cookstown, 3.00pm Grange Road.