Pegasus show their mettle

It is probably as foolish as it is perilous to ever attempt to write off Pegasus but after two lacklustre performances at the All-Ireland Club Championships in Belfield there was a suspicion that maybe the Ulster side had lost their edge and that the win they needed against Hermes in yesterday's tournament decider would be beyond them. So much for that.

Once again the Ulster champions showed their mettle. They beat Hermes 1-0 to secure their fourth successive national title - and their passage in to European competition next season.

"Magnificent," is how Pegasus coach Graham Quincey described his team's first-half display. Seven short corners in the first 16 minutes underlined their dominance and if it wasn't for heroic defending from Daphne Sixsmith and Sinead McDonnell they would have gone in at the break with a comfortable lead.

However, they had to wait until the 46th minute to get the goal that ultimately clinched victory, with Irish sweeper Arlene Boyles firing home through a crowd of players from her team's ninth short corner of the contest. By then McDonnell had cleared a Pamela Magill corner strike off the line with Susie Martin, Kim Mills, Claire McGookin and Claire McMahon all going close to opening the scoring for the Belfast side.

The closest Hermes came to snatching the point they needed for their first All-Ireland title was when a Sixsmith shot from a corner flew inches wide in the 50th minute.

The measure of the competitiveness of the tournament is that Alexandra finished without a point yet were the only team to score against Pegasus - through a sublime Trish Conway lob from a short corner in Saturday's 4-1 defeat.

Loreto, who beat Alexandra 4-1 yesterday to take third place, had their title hopes ended by Hermes on Saturday when they lost 1-0 - Aisling Keane got the Hermes winner after 21 minutes.