Lambe lands golden winner

MENS HOCKEY: Mark Lambe loped his way through to poach a "golden goal" winner five minutes into extra time as Glenanne, the holders, edged out Pembroke Wanderers, 3-2, in the preliminary round of the Leinster Senior Cup at Tallaght yesterday.

The scene had been set for another intense match as Pembroke, the defending champions, had joined Glenanne at the top of the league standings on Saturday. Pembroke's dominance yielded a 2-0 lead through Gordon Elliott (from close range) and Ronan Gormley (from a short-corner rebound). But after the second goal in the 35th minute, Glenanne's Paul Fitzpatrick put John Goulding through to reduce the margin significantly.

Surprisingly, Glenanne went on to outplay the visitors and were rewarded with an equaliser midway through the second half when Joe Brennan converted a penalty stroke. Although they should have sealed the issue in normal time, their more forceful approach was duly rewarded by Lambe's opportunism.

While Glenanne had to be satisfied with Brennan cancelling out a goal by Alan Lewis in their league draw with Monkstown at St Andrew's on Saturday, Pembroke drew level with by beating Trinity 4-3 at Serpentine Avenue.

John Jermyn scored twice as Pembroke swept into a 4-1 lead (it was 1-1 at the interval) but Peter Blakeney completed a hat-trick for the students to bring his championship tally to 19 as his team reached a 30-goal tally. This makes them the second top scorers (behind Pembroke) yet they frustratingly hold second last spot in the standings.

Although Clontarf are confined to the bottom rung, they salvaged a point in their home game against Three Rock Rovers. With time running out at 0-0, Dougie Good had a penalty stroke saved by Shane Davy but although Garry Ringwood put Rovers ahead with a minute left, Jasper Heitjel snatched an equaliser.

Aer Lingus, with a hat-trick by Adrian Sweeney, overpowered YMCA 4-2 at Claremont Road to share third place with Monkstown but it is a blow to the airport side that a broken nose will keep Eamon Bane out of action for some weeks.

Yesterday, Aer Lingus were very much understrength as they lost 2-1 to a chuffed Clontarf side in the Senior Cup while Reuben Holden helped himself to five goals in Railway Union's extravagant 11-3 defeat of Weston.