Munster Youth Cup Round 1 – NCW 1 Ballingarry 0
Under 14 Division 2 – Ballingarry 1 (Murphy) St Itas 1
The youths bowed out of the Munster youth cup following a 1-0 reversal in NCW. It what was a fine game of end to end football. Ballingarry can only blame themselves for not progressing to the third round having missed a host a chances. Jeff Doherty and Kevin Forde both had just the keeper to beat but failed. The wastage finally told ten minutes from time when the home side got what proved to be the winner.
The under 14s were unlucky not to collect all three points from a fine performance in another fine game. Itas took the lead after just five minutes from some sloppy home defending, a goal that saw Itas froce further pressure on the Ballingarry defence. However once Ballingarry settled they began to play some wonderful football which resulted in an equaliser from Jason Murphy, his fourth of the season in all competitions. Nathan Clancy won the throw and beat three players down the left before crossing for Murphy to apply the finishing touch to leave the sides level at the break. The second half saw Ballingarry apply all the presssure, hitting the crossbar and having a goal disallowed. However it was Itas who went closest to grabbing all three points when Mikey Hickey cleared off the line.
The under 10s and 8s season has now entered their Winter break and will resume in Feb for the 10s and March for the 8s. At this stage it appears that both will struggle to make their finals with the 8s having one point from four games and the 10s with six from five games.