Relegation as Grove Menzieshill lose final Euro indoor match

Grove Menzieshill 2-4 HC Zelina

Grove Menzieshill`s fight to stave off relegation from the men’s European Indoor Club Trophy in Minsk finally came to an unfortunate conclusion with a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Croatian champions HC Zelina. The Taysiders finished second bottom of the relegation pool and consequently go down along with Bra from Italy.

The result is that Inverleith, newly crowned men’s Scottish indoor champions, will play in Europe`s third tier next season.

It was Grove Menzieshill who drew first blood in 14 minutes with a penalty corner strike by Cameron Golden. But the Dundonians were unable to hold their lead to the interval, after a time-out and substituting their keeper with an additional outfield player, Zelina levelled with an open play goal from Petar Hrsak on the stroke of half-time.

There were no further additions to the score until midway through the second half, Zelina had Mario Ilinovic sent to the sin bin but undaunted they still took a 2-1 lead through Anze Fujs. Within three minutes the same player made it 3-1 for the Croatians, then Aleksandr Lykov added a fourth – and the writing was on the wall for Grove Menzieshill.

With five minutes remaining coach Bruce Cuthill elected to substitute his keeper in a belated gamble to rescue the match, but they needed four goals in almost as many minutes.

Ben Cromar made an initial inroad into the deficit with a penalty corner goal, but it proved too little too late as the Croatians played out the remaining minutes for their own survival.

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