Garvey finally hit form to teach the students a lesson

They totally destroyed their opponents, University College Dublin 8-0 in a fine display of attacking hockey.

The home side began in a positive manner, and in the fourth minute, Timmy Cockram opened the scoring with a drag-flick that the keeper Conor Quinn may well have blocked.

Concentrated pressure from a very active midfield left UCD struggling to stay in the game and Sean Murray saw his shot frantically cleared off the line in the 10th minute.

A great move involving Andy Williamson and Richard Arneill then saw Williamson’s shot scraped off the line.

Andy Forrest was again showing his ability but Quinn denied the Garvey striker with three fine reaction saves.

Johnny Quigley got into the action in the 39th minute gaining Garvey’s third penalty corner but Cockram’s shot was cleared.

A fourth set-piece was forced by the persistent Garvey but again Timmy Cockram saw his powerful drag-flick taken off the goal line. In the 30th minute, a fifth penalty corner saw a planned switch work perfectly as the Williamson deflection was too much for the UCD keeper for the long awaited second goal.

The opening 10 minutes of the second half saw Garvey pulverise the tired UCD defence with four quickfire goals.

Firstly Daniel Nelson got on the end of Cockrams reverse stick cross to beat Quinn with a snap-shot and a minute later Daniel Buser, back to his best, scored on his reverse side to take Garvey into a comfortable 4-0 lead.

The pressure on the UCD goal was unrelenting as Garvey scored their fifth goal through captain Johnny Bell with a great reverse shot from the left and to top off a brilliant 10 minute period, Williamson scored a sixth goal from close range as the UCD defence crumbled.

Garvey’s seventh penalty corner came in the 56th minute and Daniel Buser missed a sitter when he slipped the rebound past the post. However, in the 58th minute he made amends with a lovely piece of skill reverse-flicking the ball over keeper Quinn into the far corner of the net for the goal of the match.

Andy Forrest was on hand to slot the ball home Garvey’s final goal of the day after good work by Richard Arneill on the left of the UCD circle.

Daniel Nelson could have added another but in the last seconds of the now one sided match, he slipped his shot past the post.

Garvey had done more than enough to set up a second round game against Corinthians on 15 November at Comber Road.

Garvey do not have fixtures for the next two weekends. They were due to play their second round Irish Senior Cup match against Corinthians on the 18th October but Comber Road is being used for the Under 16/18 interprovincial matches.

The 25th is also a free date as the match against Annadale is postponed with a number of players taking part in the Universities tournament scheduled for that weekend.