Last Saturday seen the Davitt’s U8 hurling team fulfil the last in the series of go games fixtures at Lamh Dhearg pitches in Hannahstown . We had 3 matches to play this week the first being against our old rivals Mc Dermott’s and was to be an 8 minute match, 7-a-side. We started really well and scored 2 early goals to help us settle in. The game continued pretty much as it started with us putting on all the pressure and when required the back line were able to see off the few attacks made and manage to keep a clean sheet while the forwards went on to add 2 more goals to run out comfortable 4-0 winners.
The next game was against St Paul’s who have been hurling at this level for years and always carry a really strong panel, and we agreed to go 9-a-side to give the whole team a game. This game was more even but we managed to score first and gradually started to take a hold of possession and pile on the pressure. About half way in we scored a 2nd goal to increase our lead and on balance it was no more than we deserved having had the lion’s share of the ball and attempts on goal. St Paul’s did however manage to get one back after about 6 minutes when the keeper was distracted by a family member in the crowd and allowed the ball to sneak into the corner of the net. After a quick chat and a strong reprimand for the family member in the crowd we rallied round and scored another to run out 3-1 winners and in truth it might have been more.
The next match was against Gort-Na-Mona a team we had played the previous week who had beaten us 2-1. This game was only to be 6-a-side so it meant leaving 3 of our boys out at the start which left a lot of empty spaces on the pitch. This was a match that was very evenly matched but our kids took it to Gort and flew out of the blocks taking a 2-0 early lead dominating the first half of the game completely. Unfortunately it was to be a game of 2 halves and whether through tiredness or that fact we were making lots of team changes to give all our kids a game causing positional confusion we let them back into the game losing our shape and they fought back to draw the game 2-2. Although it ruined the clean sweep we were aiming for the boys showed a lot of character under great pressure at the end to hold out and improve on the previous weeks result.
On the whole the go games series has been a great success for this fledgling team and the improvements shown by the kids have way surpassed all expectation. We entered the tournament expecting very little but what we have learned is the kids are on a level par with other clubs who have been training for much longer than we have and we firmly believe there are great things to come from this batch of kids at all levels. The coaches would like to finish by thanking everyone who helped out during the series but most of all would like to thank all the parents for taking the time to bring the kids along, giving up their precious Saturday mornings in bed. The management and club are all very proud of the kids and so should you to have come so far in such a short space of time.
Team; C Ferran, S Thompson, S McAuley, C Corr, B Maguire, J Maguire, J.T Hawky, L Lynn, C Rainey, K Curley, A Cosgrove
