Pembroke's chance to salvage success

MEN'S HOCKEY LEAGUE FINALS:PEMBROKE CAPTAIN Alan Giles says he is not concerned about missing Justin Sherriff, Tim Lewis and possibly Gordy Elliott going into tomorrow's Irish Hockey League (IHL) semi-final against last week's Irish Cup winners Glenanne.

It’s a chance for Pembroke to salvage a national outdoor title after Glenanne put them out of the cup at the semi-final stage this season.

The argument could be made that Pembroke should win one of the two big prizes given the playing resources at Serpentine Avenue. They are also the IHL holders, having beaten Glenanne after penalties in last year’s final.

Pembroke will miss the experience of those three players but they have an obvious depth of talent. A more pertinent question is whether Glenanne’s momentum from last week in Belfield, where they defeated Monkstown 4-1, will take them into this encounter as the sharper side against a Pembroke squad who have not been competitively active over the last number of weeks.

It is also Stephen Butler’s last game for Glenanne before he travels to Belgium to play with Dragons again. Butler, who scored twice at set-pieces, and Graham Shaw, who won last week’s man of the match award, make the Joe Brennan-led Tallaght side tick but they are ably supported by a gritty, talented squad.

While the main focus will be on that all Dublin semi-final, either Corinthians or Ulster’s Lisnagarvey will be at Grange Road to meet the winners in Sunday’s final. In that light neither can be discounted as possible winners.

Lisnagarvey have Tim Cockram scoring in double figures in this competition while Greg Thompson has hit five so far.

But Corinthians are successfully led by South African player-coach Andrew Cronje, who must make up his mind whether to stay at Whitechurch next season or make a run at the Springbok team for the London Olympics in 2012, which Ireland will not be attending.