Pro League Hockey: Ireland suffer second single-goal defeat by Belgium
Belgium were relentless in the first half putting Ireland under constant pressure.The home side didn’t help themselves with some ill-disciplined defending outside of their circle and conceded a number of penalty corners from which Belgium struck twice.The opening goal came after Aoife Glennon, making her Irish debut, made an excellent save from the first effort but the ball went straight to Charlotte Englebert who converted the rebound.The second was scored by Alix Gerniers, who deflected the ball past Glennon from close range.Ireland started the second half with more conviction and from their first penalty corner Lucy Mulcahy’s drag shot went just wide.To the delight of the home support, Ireland conjured up a goal with five minutes remaining in the third quarter.Hawkshaw did well to create space for the shot at the edge of the circle and, although she did not get the accuracy or power in her effort, it bounced awkwardly off a Belgian stick and Sarah Torrans was in the right place to put the ball into the roof of the net.There would be no storming finish for Ireland and while, once again, they will take positives from the performance against one of the top sides in the world, they will know that but for a poor start they could have gotten something from the game. "If anything, what we take forward is that we have to take the ball and we have to move it, and we have to back our decision-making and go with real intent," continued Hawkshaw."We have to take that into the game against England."I think the frustration sits because I really believe this team can take on these players, they can take on these teams."
