St Itas GAA Club League report

St Itas Hurling team took to the field for the first league game of the year. They played Dungourney in Dungourney on Friday the 20th May last in Dungourneyboth sides took to the field at 8pm with conditions very good despite the forcast. St Itas this year, like many clubs having to deal with many changes in the last 12 months with the panel of players being affected by the recession.

A lot of youngerplayers have for one reason or another had to emigrate to find work or to continueeducation courses. Having said that the panel of players that are lining out this year have been training under the watchful eye of the coach and selectors for the lastnimber of weeks and moral is good within the club. Having won thier section of the League last year however the road ahead is an uphill one with the higher standardof hurling at this level and a reduced panel.

Pa O Driscoll was the referee for this game and at 8pm he threw the ball in. Itas from that point on were matching Dungourney ball for ball but struggling to get scores. However they battled on and at half time they were still in the chase havingmatched Dungourney score for score. As the game wore on you could see that Dungourneywith some fast forwards were gaining the advantage and only for the goals Itas scoredthey would have been a lot further in arrears. With ten minutes to go they got thethird goal to put them two point up before Dungourney came back scoring a free quicklyfollowed by a point from the resulting puck out.

Shortly after this two players were sent to the line by the refaree leaving both sides down to fourteen players apiece before St Itas went up the field and scored a point from a free to put them one point ahead, then with just two minutes left Itas struck again and from the sideline it looked like a point but it was waved wide but the players and officials. From the resulting puck out Dungourney went up the field and leveled the game with a well taken point to finish the match with both sides level.

The final score was St Itas 3-12 Dungourney 1-18.

On Wed evening St Itas will face the next challange when they play their second league match of the year at home in Pilmore. There is no doubt that this year is going to bea tough year if they want to stay up at this division. for more information on the team and news from the club you can visit the websiteon www.stitasgaa.com to view photos, history and results for the season.

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