Portlaw 2-8; De La Salle 0-12
De La Salle’s dream of finally lifting the county intermediate title died in Kill last Saturday afternoon when, for the second year in a row, they went under to Portlaw in the Eastern semi-final.
In the end, the goals scored by Portlaw, one in each half, proved crucial and they now go on to play John Mitchels in a repeat of last year’s final.
De La Salle hadn’t played a game in this Championship for almost two months and to be honest, it showed during the first half when they looked rather rusty.
This handed the initiative to Portlaw and with forwards of the calibre of Paul Power and county panellist Michael Donnelly at their disposal, the tannery men were certainly in no mood to be charitable.
Portlaw let their intentions be known very early in the game and they raced into a two point lead inside the first four minutes with both Power and Donnelly opening their accounts with excellent points.
De La Salle eventually got off the mark in the eighth minute when midfielder Mitchell Casey, an injury doubt beforehand, scored a free.
