Eurohockey Championship II: Tumilty praises Ireland's maturity after last-gasp win over Poland

Johnny McKee's winner came 18 seconds before full-time

Coach Mark Tumilty praised Ireland's "incredible" maturity after his Covid-hit team edged hosts Poland in their Eurohockey Championship II opener.

Johnny McKee's goal 18 seconds from time gave Ireland the win in their first competitive outing since 2019.

Ireland were without a number of players who were identified as potential Covid-19 close contacts.

"The maturity the guys have shown this week has been incredible," said Tumilty.

Ireland's preparations were hit when several players forced to quarantine following a close contact notification after their flight to Poland.

Before leaving, meanwhile, Lee Cole was unable to travel to the tournament with Fergus Gibson taking his place.

Kevin O'Dea, Kyle Marshall, Mark McNellis, Ben Nelson, James Milliken, Fergus Gibson and Ian Stewart all made their Ireland debuts in the victory over Poland on Sunday night, and Tumilty was pleased with how his senior players helped the inexperienced members of the panel.

"It goes back to last Saturday when we lost Johnny Lynch," added Tumilty.

"There have been distractions; some of them hadn't been on the pitch yet before today. It wasn't perfect but the senior players and [assistant coach] Jason Klinkradt looked after them really well.

"The guys have handled it really well. A young group, they showed a lot of character to hang in there in the end.

"We defended well and James Milliken was excellent in goals. Shane O'Donoghue produced that great bit of skill on the left-hand side and Jonny McKee got the winner."

Mark Tumilty was appointed Ireland men's hockey coach on a full-time basis in October 2020

Ben Walker opened the scoring for the visitors at the end of the first quarter when he tapped in from close range after the hosts had initially cleared a penalty corner.

Shane O'Donoghue, Jeremy Duncan and Walker were denied by goalkeeper Maciej Pacanowski before Krystian Sudol brought the sides level in the third quarter.

The match was heading for a draw when some excellent approach play from O'Donoghue found McKee at the back post who was able to scramble home.

Having been relegated to Division Two, Ireland are the highest ranked side in Poland at 14th in the world and their primary target is to progress to October's World Cup qualifiers.

"It's nice to have that kind of reward out there and if we can get it early, it could give us some freedom for the rest of the tournament," said Tumilty.

"But Italy will be very tough and, actually, [world number 40] Croatia looked very good today as well.

"We have to be better than today but we will grow."