Ireland indoor women's hockey team beat Lithuania in thrilling finish to take gold at EuroHockey Indoor Championship II in Galway

Ireland went into their final pool match of the tournament trailing leaders Lithuania by two points with a simple mission – nothing less than a win over Lithuania would be good enough to secure promotion to the top tier of European Indoor Hockey.

There was no scoring at all in the first quarter. All the goals in this game came in the hectic final 10 minutes. Dovile Juraite opened the scoring for Lithuania in the 20th minute and Lithuania led 1-0 at half-time. Orla Fox converted a penalty corner to get Ireland on level terms in the 31st minute. 1-1 a final result like this would have given Lithuania the title.

Lithuania's hero Dovile Juraite was yellow carded in 32nd minute and Ireland fired in a few goals while her team were shorthanded. Chloe Brown converted the penalty corner in the 32nd minute to make it 2-1 to Ireland, before Milla Fulton scored from open play in the 34th minute to make it 3-1.

Chloe Brown converted her second penalty corner of the day to make it 4-1 in the 35th minute and in the 39th minute Ireland were awarded a penalty stroke which Orla Fox converted to make the final score 5-1. This put Ireland in first place by one point and secured the gold medal in this tournament plus the right to play in the higher echelon of European Indoor Hockey in the next tournament.

IRELAND: Emma Buckley (GK), Sarah Patton, Mikayla Power, Chloe Brown, Orla Fox, Milla Fulton.

SUBS USED: Kate Hora (39 mins GK); Laura Graham (4 mins), Orla Patton (C) (4 mins) Orla Macken (22 mins), Ellen Robinson (7 mins).

FINAL STANDINGS:

IRELAND - 1st place 13 points +21 goal difference

LITHUANIA – 2nd place 12 points +12 goal difference

CROATIA – 3rd place 9 points +5 goal difference

SLOVAKIA – 4th place 5 points -4 goal difference

SWEDEN – 5th place 3 points -10 goal difference

PORTUGAL – 6th place 1 point -24 goal difference