Dream start for Irish Paralympic squad

Today at CPISRA European championships in Glasgow, Ireland produced an excellent performance against a strong England team. The rout began as early as the 10th minute from a superb left wing cross from Gary Messett which was turned into his own net from a helpless England defender. The second goal came four minutes later from a delightful left wing cross from the reliable left boot of Paul Dollard, Jason Moran was left with a simple header beyond the helpless keeper. The scoring in the first half was completed in the 20th minute from a well worked free kick from Luke Evans.

19th Aug 2010

Today at CPISRA European championships in Glasgow, Ireland produced an excellent performance against a strong England team. The rout began as early as the 10th minute from a superb left wing cross from Gary Messett which was turned into his own net from a helpless England defender. The second goal came four minutes later from a delightful left wing cross from the reliable left boot of Paul Dollard, Jason Moran was left with a simple header beyond the helpless keeper. The scoring in the first half was completed in the 20th minute from a well worked free kick from Luke Evans.

The scoring continued five minutes into the second half through a well worked team goal, the ball was slotted into the bottom left corner of the English net by Joe Markey. On the 46th minute Gary Messett picked the ball up in his own half and slicked through by now deflated English defence to slide beyond the helpless goal keeper. The rout was concluded in the 54th minute through a cool finish from Jason Moran, his fifth goal in two games at these European champs capping a tremendous team performance.

Following the game team manager Paul Cassin commented, "This was by far the best team performance l have witnessed against an English team. Considering at the recent Paralympic WC in Manchester, we only managed to beat them 2-1. This has laid down a marker leading in the Paralympic games in London 2012."

Gary Messett said, "Today was a wonderful team performance, the selflessness, work rate and commitment from all 12 of the squad and support team has been phenomenal. Our two opening performance is a real indication of the potential that this team has."

This win comes on the back of a 5-0 opening day win against Australia with the goals coming from a Jason Moran hat trick, Luke Evans and a first senior international goal from the 18 year old Dara Snell.

Next up for the Irish is a well deserved rest day before they take on the might of the current Paralympic champions, Ukraine. This goes ahead at 1pm on Friday 20th August.

Republic of Ireland Squad:

Brian McGillivary -Dublin
Aidan Brennan -Dublin
Paul Dollard -Dublin
Luke Evans -Dublin
Joe Markey -Monaghan
Finbarr ORiordan -Cork
Jason Moran -Galway
Mark Jones - Belfast
Derek Malone -Clare
Gary Messett - Wicklow
Darren Kavanagh - Dublin
Dara Snell -Wicklow