Perhaps the last thing Sandra O'Gorman's injured back needed in Cardiff yesterday afternoon was to be jumped on by 15 of her fellow Muckross squad members, plus coach Harald de Jong and manager Freda Canavan, but having just won her club a bronze medal at the European Championships (B Division), with three saves in a penalty strokes competition against Swansea, she wasn't complaining.
"Ah, I love the auld penalty shoot-outs, they're my forte," she said after performing heroics for her club following a 3-3 draw in normal time of the bronze medal play-off. Orla Bell gave the Dublin side the lead with a penalty stroke eight minutes into the match, but Welsh international Emma James scored twice in a minute, both from play, to put Swansea ahead. Ciara McGrath equalised in the 30th minute, with a shot from a short corner, and on the stroke of half time Johnson restored Muckross's lead.
The Welsh champions equalised in the 55th minute when captain Linda Watkin scored. O'Gorman was injured in the scramble that led to the goal, receiving a knee in the back for her troubles, but battled on. With the sides level at end of normal time the match moved straight into the strokes competition, with no extra-time being played. After O'Gorman's saves from Watkin, Zoe Hewitt and Penny Arborne - and Clodagh McMoreland and Kathy Johnson's successful efforts for Muckross - Teresa Hurley converted her side's final stroke to clinch the bronze medal.
European Club Championship B Division (at Cardiff) - Final: Ritm Grodno (Belarus) 1, Slavia Prague (Czech Republic) 1. Ritm Grodno won 4-2 on penalty strokes. Bronze medal play-off: Muckross 3 (O Bell pen, C McGrath, K Johnson), Swansea 3 (E James 2, L Watkin). Muckross won 3-1 on penalty strokes. Fifth-sixth place play-off: Stade Francais 3, Wierner Neudorf 2 (Austria). Seventh-eighth place play-off: Siauliai 2 (Lithuania), Tirotex 2 (Moldovia). Siauliai won 3-1 on penalty strokes.
Slavia Prague and Ritm Grodno won promotion to the A Division of the European Club Championship as next season's representatives from the Czech Republic and Belarus - Lithuania and Moldovia are relegated to the C Division after Siauliai and Tirotex finished in the bottom two.
