It’s been a while since we caught up with Ulster’s premier powerhouses and it looks like the lean mean hockey machine has been misfiring a touch in November, slipping down to 2nd place in the EYHL after a 2 – 1 win for Pembroke Wanderers in Dublin a couple of weeks ago.
However, Pegasus are still very much in the hunt, on all fronts, and it’s building for an exciting second half to the All Ireland league, with five points separating the top 4. Hopefully we’ll get a few 13:00 or 16:00 push backs so we can cover the run in.
To be fair, Pegasus didn’t manage to impose their swarming all field press all that often in the first quarter of this match but they did edge territory and possession and took the lead 10 minutes in with Emma Quinn getting the final touch on a Shirley McCay penalty corner strike.
However, UCD’s quick breaking counters had been causing Pegasus problems with Niamh and Michelle Carey both running good lines. Niamh Carey equalised for UCD within a minute of conceding and Michelle Carey put UCD 1 – 2 ahead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started to the ring of captain McCay extolling her players to raise the tempo and we began to see more of Lucy McKee and Leah Paul in our viewfinder as Pegasus started to swarm forwards. Ella Armstrong did a good job to move the UCD defence about and Lucy McKee found the gap to push in from the right and slot in the equaliser.
I only had time for the first half but by the time I left it looked as though Pegasus were starting to get on top but I thought that UCD had at least one more goal in them as the Carey’s continued to trouble the defence.
It was no surprise, on reading the score sheet later, to find that Michelle Carey had scored again for UCD with Taite Doherty getting the third for Pegasus in a 3 – 3 draw.
