Ireland rise to the challenge

Men's Hockey World Cup Qualifier/Ireland 2 Pakistan 2: Stephen Butler's two first-half goals helped Ireland claim a vital point from highly-ranked Pakistan at the World Hockey Cup qualifiers in China yesterday.

The result, allied with Canada's 2-1 victory over Egypt, proved enough to keep Irish hopes alive that the team can win a place at next September's finals in Germany. Ireland play Japan in the 'crossovers' tomorrow, with the winners meeting the team that comes through the Belgium- France tie.

All the early goalmouth action came from the Asian nation, who have been an ever-present force at all previous World Cups.

Irish goalkeeper Charlie Henderson saved a ninth-minute effort from Rehan Butt shortly before the Pakistanis went into the lead.

The opener was delivered through a crisp shot from defender Diliwar Hussain who sped upfield to deliver the score with impeccable placing past Henderson's left foot.

In the rocky spell that followed, Henderson dived at the feet of Shakeel Abbasi, who shot wide. Pakistan also earned a penalty corner, with Jason Black marking his 100th senior cap by running out to block Imran Warsi before Graham Shaw tidied up.

Having survived the turbulence, Ireland then responded, with Shaw a dynamo in midfield while his Glenanne clubmate Butler was introduced in attack.

The move bore fruit four minutes after the big Dubliner joined the action when David Hobbs and Phelie Maguire put him in possession near goal. Butler scrambled the ball into the net from among a ruck of players and, shortly before half-time, he delivered what has so often been lacking in the Irish game at Changzhou - a well worked short corner.

It was Butler who earned himself the chance as he drew a stick tackle and the strike that followed was perfect, loosed off with plenty of disguise low to Salman Akbar's right to leave the underdogs ahead at the break.

The Irish lead lasted lasted until the 46th minute when Mudassar Khan drove a lofted cross into the Irish circle, forcing captain Paddy Brown to jump out of the way. Both sides expected a whistle from umpire Christian Blasch but he allowed Rehan Butt to collect the ball and clip it into the net, amid loudly expressed protests from Ireland.

"It's not difficult to raise your game to play Pakistan," said Irish midfielder Shaw afterwards. "They are recognised as one of the big hockey nations. Coming in off one or two bad results, we wanted to prove how good a side we actually are."

IRELAND: C Henderson, P Brown, J Black, K Burns, M Gleghorne, M Irwin, J Jermyn, J Sherriff, G Shaw, M Black, I Lewers. Subs: S Butler, D Hobbs, P Maguire, R Gormley.

PAKISTAN: S Akbar, I Wasri, A Sajjad, M Saqlain, D Hussain, A Maqsood, R Butt, M Shabbir, M Khan, S Abbasi, M Imran. Subs: A Waqas, A Zakir, Z Ashraf, M Waqas.

Umpires: C Blasch (Germany), A Singh (Malaysia).