Shane O’Donoghue fires Ireland into semis

Shane O’Donoghue, Ireland’s all-time leading goal scorer, not only provided a hat-trick for himself by the third quarter, but also surpassed the 100 international goal mark, making him the first Irish Hockey player to do so, as Ireland top Pool A and secure a semi-final spot for Saturday.

O’Donoghue put Ireland on the scoreboard within the opening minute of the game from a penalty corner. The Irish Men dominated possession in the opening quarter with goals from Conor Harte and Matthew Nelson making it 3-0 to Ireland before the first quarter whistle blew.

The goals kept coming in quarter two with Magee and Walker passing around the Singapore circle to provide Stephen Cole the opportunity to finish.

A backhand from O’Donoghue gave youngster Ben Walker a chance to touch the ball into the goal to bring Ireland to a 5-0 lead.

Ireland continued to dominate possession throughout the match against a noticeably weaker Singapore, with another five goals in the 3rd quarter.

O’Donoghue secured a hat-trick for himself by the third quarter and reached 101 international goals for himself for Ireland. Both Stephen Cole and Conor Harte managed to put away their second goals of the match, while Luke Madeley also got a drag flick from a penalty corner behind Singapore’s Sandran bringing the third quarter to a close with a 10-0 lead to Ireland.

After a sweeping move up the field and several shots at the goal, the closing minute of the game saw Lee Cole make the final result Ireland 11-0 Singapore.

Speaking on the result, Head Coach Alexander Cox said: “We knew we needed to score at least four goals today to top the table.

“We scored 11 which is a good result.

“After the big disappointment of losing to Egypt we needed to show ourselves that we are capable of reaching the qualifier play-offs for Tokyo.

“Now we need to prepare ourselves for a big game coming up.”