Speedy Tigers avenge defeat to Ireland

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 -- The national men's hockey senior squad avenged their defeat to Ireland on Tuesday when they recorded a 4-2 victory in their second test match against the team held at Lisnagarvey Hockey Club, Hillsborough, Northern Ireland Wednesday.

The Speedy Tigers narrowly lost 2-3 in the first test match against Ireland. The test matches were part of their 2021 United Kingdom Tour Series that started on Sept 26.

In Wednesday's match, Muhammad Razie Abd Rahim emerged as Malaysia's hero when he scored two goals through penalty corners in the 11th and 12th minutes.

Muhammad Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal netted the third goal through a field movement in the 15th minute before Muhammad Najib Abu Hassan completed Malaysia's winning goal in the 22nd minute, also through a field goal.

However, the squad coached by A. Arulselvaraj were initially stunned when Jeremy Duncan scored a field goal for Ireland's as early as the third minute but they boys set that aside and bounced back to up the ante.

Two minutes before the end of the match, Luke Madeley netted Ireland's second goal via a penalty corner.

Meanwhile, Arulselvaraj was proud of his protégés who took heed of the defeat in the first leg to be better prepared to seek victory in the second leg against Ireland.

"A really encouraging and positive performance for them to bounce back from yesterday's defeat. We got three penalty corners and Razie Rahim converted two of them while Ireland were rewarded with more penalty corners than us.

"Field goals scored by Azrai Aizad and Najib Hassan also show that in our team there are many players who can score field goals," he said in a statement issued by the Malaysian Hockey Confederation today.

Team captain Muhammad Marhan Mohd Jalil said they went down with high confidence, and did their best to ensure victory and hoped that his teammates would maintain the winning momentum to face their next match against Wales.

The match against Wales, which is their third test match as well as seventh overall in the United Kingdom, will take place this Saturday at 11.30 pm Malaysian time at the Wales Hockey Centre, Cardiff.

In another development, the national men's junior squad, who are also in the United Kingdom, lost 0-2 to the England Under-21 team at Bisham Abbey yesterday.

-- BERNAMA