Garvey through to semi final

This was a somewhat scrappy match which only contained pockets of good hockey. Garvey probably deserved to take the spoils as they had more possession throughout the 70 minutes and created more open chances.

Playing without the injured Timmy Cockram and Mark Raphael, Garvey immediately took the game to their opponents penning them inside their own half for most of the opening 10 minutes. Johnny Quigley and Stuart McNiece had chances during this time and it took until the 14th minute for Inst to reply with a fine dribble and shot from James Corry before his effort went high over the cross bar.

The 22nd minute saw the break through for the visitors when Andy Forrest was upended by Inst keeper Richard Johnston and Steven Arbuthnot coolly converted the resulting penalty stroke.

Following the goal the home side came more into the game and Daniel Buser showed his defensive qualities in the 27th minute when he cleared up a dangerous Inst attack but another raid saw Corry with another run which ended with Johnny Madill getting a touch on the ball and it was enough to take the ball past Garvey keeper John Tormey and into the net for the equaliser in the 29th minute.

Garvey replied with their first penalty corner of the match in the 33rd minute but Steven Arbuthnot’s shot was well blocked and the same player had a good shot well saved by Johnston in the last minute of the first half which ended seconds later with the score at 1-1.

The second half was only seconds old when Garvey forced their second penalty corner but again keeper Johnston was more than equal to Arbuthnot’s drag flick and a minute later the team was down to ten men when Andy Forrest received a debateable yellow card.

A third set piece fell to Garvey in the 40th minute and again the absence of Timmy Cockram was obvious as a weak Arbuthnot effort was easily parried by Johnston.

The 43rd minute produced the overdue second goal for Garvey; Jonny Bell drilled the ball into the Inst circle and James Dowling was on the spot to deflect it past the groping Johnston.

Daniel Buser could have put the result beyond doubt in the 45th minute but put his shot past the post from close range and a minute later they were to rue the mistake when Inst again equalised. Chris Kirk did the work down the right flank before John Watson scored after John Tormey had almost kept the ball out of his net with a despairing save.

Instonians had hardly earned parity as Garvey still had the vast majority of possession and their attacks continued when Phil Stirling, playing his first senior game for a while, shot over the bar in the 48th minute.

Garvey, following heavy pressure on the Inst defence, forced a succession of penalty corners starting in the 53rd minute. The first saw a switch around the circle and a shot which led to another which was wasted due to a poor stop. Two more came about in the 56th and 58th minutes. The first produced no shot but the second proved to be the match winner as Steven Arbuthnot placed his drag flick inside the left hand post to give Garvey a fully deserved 3-2 victory.

This result takes them through to the semi-final stage of the competition which will be on Sunday October 7. Their opponents are as yet unknown as the last round of games has to be played tomorrow and it sees Garvey travel to Havelock Park to take on a Banbridge team which has to win to join them on semi-final Sunday. A predictably tight match is in prospect with Garvey hoping to have Timmy Cockram and Mark Raphael back in the squad to give them the chance to post a clean sweep of results in the Kirk Cup.