GAA NOTES

INTERMEDIATE HURLING: There is an old saying in sport in that if you dont take your chances you dont win matches, and thats what happened the Ferrybank hurlers last Tuesday night in there winner takes all clash against Portlaw. With a quater final place up for grabs for the winners. By far much the better team for much of the game, they were cruelly denied victory by a late Portlaw rally which yieled 1-1 in injury time. With the wind at there backs Ferrybank made the brighter start with James Murphy opening the scoring with a lovely side line cut followed by a Cormac O' Driscoll point, however a soft goal conceeded put Portlaw into the lead. With Ferrybank getting on top points from Cormac, Sam, and Sparky seemed to have us in control. Unfortunately an injury to stand in goalie Shane Flynn didnt help our cause as we had to reshuffled our pack with Jo- Jo having to go between the sticks. But the lads were still on top and points from Sparky and Damien Walsh left us three points clear at the break. With Portlaw now having the breeze at there backs, they came out all guns blazing and put over four unanswered points in the opening ten minutes, things didnt look to good for the village boys but captain John Byrne batted in a goal from a Mark Dreenan pass on 41 minutes to put two point clear. This gave Ferrybank a huge lift and Sam Lawless was very unlucky to see his piledriver of a shot come back of the crossbar.Ferrybank started now to get well on top, but chances went abegging for us, as the game wore on.Portlaw then equalisied with two points with under 10 minutes to go, but two Eoin O' Neill points, and another from Sam Lawless left us three points clear with two minutes to go. Porlaw replied with a point to reduce the arrears to two , and as the game went into injury time a long hopeful Portlaw ball went into the Ferrybank box, and somehow the ball crawled over the line and into the goal. Another Portlaw attack got them another score that left two between them, as the referee blew full time. This was a heartbreak defeat for Ferrybank, and apart for a 10 minute dominance from Portlaw in the start of the second half, were totally second best for the remainder of the game.However we wish them well in the quater finals.TEAM: Shane Flynn, Conor Hogan, Gary Coady, Pat O' Neill, Paul Martin, Damien Walsh, Shane Sullivan, Phil Blake, Cormac O' Driscoll, James Murphy, John Byrne, Eoin O' Neill, Mark Drennan, Cormac O' Meara. Sam Lawless. SUBS Damien Heffernan for Shane Flynn, Damien Ahearn for James Murphy. Many thanks to all who came along and supported the team on the night, and throughout the season.