IT Tralee survive the drop

SIGERSON CUP RELEGATION FINAL IT Tralee 2-16 Athlone IT 2-8

THE fatal last ten minutes in last week’s game against Carlow meant that IT Tralee were facing a winner-take-all relegation battle against a solid Athlone IT outfit, with the loser dropping down to the Trench Cup next season.

However, even without the talismanic David Clifford (he had picked up a knock in a Kerry challenge game the day before), IT Tralee looked much more assured from start to finish. Not only did they have key players like goalkeeper Conor Hurley, Cathal Ferriter, and Eddie Horan back in the fold, but they had also learned some tough lessons from last week’s hard finale and applied them to good measure this time around.

With sharpshooter Tony Brosnan nailing five early points, IT Tralee opened up a 0-7 to 0-2 lead, with Eddie Horan denied with two good goal attempts. Conor Keane and Jack Savage combined well for Barry John Keane’s 22nd minute goal and IT Tralee led by 1-10 to 0-5 heading into the dressing room.

Athlone, a good side in their own right, pulled back a goal, but good pressure by Barry John Keane saw a fumble into the Athlone net. Cathal Mannion’s goal for Athlone IT kept them in it and there must have been a tough of deja vu as IT Tralee had two players black-carded with 8 minutes of norrmal time left.

However, they remained impressive calm and shut up shop to close out a very impressive – and very important – win. Last week’s defeat was put into further perspective when IT Carlow defeated a Kerry back-boned UCC, the reigning champions, to qualify for the semi-finals.

IT TRALEE: Conor Hurley, Mark Fitzgerald, Michael Gavin, Jack Morgan, Cathal Ferriter, Sean Kelliher, Conor Byrne, Mark O’Shea, Sean O’Connell, Eddie Horan, Jack Savage, James Duggan, Tony Brosnan, Conor Keane, Barry John Keane Subs: Jack Myers for C Byrne, 42, Jonathan O’Sullivan for J Duggan, 48, Mark Quigley for M Gavin, 54