• Women’s win sets up Sirens showdown
• Over 30s denied by late penalty, move closer to league title
• Grogan looking ahead to Saturday’s big Irish Derby
• Pancyprians plunder the spoils at St Michael’s

It was a tough afternoon for the Shamrocks on Sunday at St Michaels where a 3-0 loss against league leaders Pancyprians kept Kevin Grogan’s side hovering just above the relegation zone.

Results elsewhere ensure the Shamrocks stay four points ahead of ninth-placed Polonia (they lost 4-0 at NYC Rovers) but Grogan said he was disappointed by the performance and called for his team to recover in time for next Saturday evening’s big Irish derby at Lansdowne.

“We deserved to lose the game,” admitted Grogan.

“We played our worst game of the season after playing so well last week in the first half against the Greeks. Consistency is king and we need to work hard on that aspect. We had no discipline in many ways today and that really disappointed me.

“There are four games left now and every point won or lost matters. The real characters need to come forward for us now. We can achieve our goal but we need everyone working together as a squad.”

The reserves also suffered a major blow, beaten 4-3 having led 3-1 thanks to goals from Colum McComish, Darren Coleman and Alex Wasilewski.

Colum McComish opened the scoring for the Rocks reserves

A win on Saturday allowed the Lansdowne reserves to leapfrog the Rocks into second – the top four will qualify for the play-offs  and fourth-placed NYC Rovers and firth-placed Westchester Eagles are within reach.

“It’s a game we should have won,” said Stevie Doyle. “But the heat took its toll and we ran out of steam. We will need everyone firing on all cylinders next Saturday because the game against Lansdowne is a must-win.”

Meanwhile, in the first game of the day, the Over 30s’ winning streak in the league came to an end but a 1-1 draw at CPR Grays kept Paddy Mc Carry’s men seven points clear at the top with three games to go.

Alex Berne scored early after good approach play but the Rocks couldn’t capitalize on that and were denied all three points late in the game when CPR were awarded a controversial penalty.

The Over 30s have a weekend off and now need just two wins from their three games in May in order to be assured of retaining the title.

“We took a step closer to the league title even though we were unlucky not to win,” said Mc Carry.

“We were unhappy with the penalty decision so that was very disappointing. But they needed to win and that didn’t happen so we’re set up nicely now.

“We did not play well in the first half but we were 1-0 up at half-time and we were much better in the second half so we would have deserved all three points.

“We’ll push on and pick up the points we need from our last three games. We don’t need to worry about anyone else bar ourselves – it’s a brilliant achievement to remain unbeaten this season and we will be looking to continue that.”

The women’s team also edged closer to a league title after an 8-0 win at Astoria.

A makeshift midfield performed brilliantly as Chloe Wheeler scored four, Sinead Hennessy grabbed two and there was a goal each for Amber Waery and Brittany Meade.

Chloe Wheeler added four more goals to her season tally

“It was a strong performance this week,” said coach Paddy Geraghty.

“The things we’ve worked on in training are starting to show and hopefully we’ll continue to improve.  We have our biggest game of the season next week and we know a win will put us in a great position.”

The late game on Sunday saw the Legends lose 4-2 at Manhattan Celtic with Johnny Keogh and Richie Brennan getting their names on the scoresheet.

“It’s always a tough game against Manhattan Celtic but it got even tougher at the start of the game when we only had 10 players,” said coach Emmett Harvey.

“Even with 10 players we played very well as a team but two injuries towards the end of the game left us short for the last 30 minutes.

“We actually missed a penalty and had a few chances so overall we did ourselves justice.”

Shamrocks 1960’s opponents failed to show up with enough players, forfeiting the game to the Metro 2 East leaders.

In Metro 2 West, Gottschee and Williamsburg continue to fight it out for the all-important top seed. Both teams won on Sunday and Gottschee remain just one point ahead of Williamsburg. The winners of each division will advance to June’s Metro 2 final.