Original Report: The Corkman, Friday, June 22nd, 1990.

By John Joe Brosnan.

Newmarket’s Trophy

GOALS in the last twenty minutes by Mark O’Sullivan and Sean Culloty proved crucial in Newmarket’s victory over Kanturk in an Examiner Cup football final that proved highly entertaining for a big attendance (gate receipt were over £1,000) at Rockchapel on Sunday.

At half time, when Newmarket trailed only by four points after having played against the stiff wind, it looked as if they would take command once they got the advantage. And that view was confirmed when Danny Culloty playing spectacularly in the midfield region, shot three points in the first five minutes of the second half in reply to Timothy Healy’s earlier point for Kanturk.

But the runaway victory that many people expected at that time did not materalise because of Kanturk’s resolute resistance. They battled on gamely against the wind although when Mark O’Sullivan shot his goal in the 40th minute the issue was more or less decided.

At that stage Newmarket were three points in front and considering the wind advantage they were undoubtedly in a strong position. But the exchange continued to be vigorously contested and it was not until Sean Culloty went through for Newmarket’s second goal just before to end that they could consider the trophy as safely in the grasp.

It was a game the provided a fine standard of football and plenty of excitement and it was a pity indeed that the wind divided it into a game of two halves.

Kanturk did quite well when they had the wind behind them in the first half but they always had the worry that they needed a fair cushion facing the second half. And few people considered their four-point margin sufficent in the circumstances.

With Kanturk dominating the play in the first half, the Newmarket backs were put under severe pressure and it was only a succession of fine saves by goalkeeper Bernard Dugdale and a great display by the backs in general, and the full-back Donal Flaherty in particular, that enabled Newmarket to keep the score down.

Four of Kanturk’s first-half points came from frees, one from a great kick from the midfield region by Jerome Walsh and the others by Timothy Healy, while Healy and Emmet Cronin (2) scored from play. Newmarket only scored a point from play during the period by John Sheehan, the others coming from frees by Sheehan and Neily McCarthy, who was very industrious in the midfield region.

Although Timothy Healy raised Kanturk’s spirits with a point from a free almost immediately after the resumption, it was Newmarket who took firm control of the play in the succeeding minutes. Danny Culloty, who had played well at midfield in the first half, now became completely dominant and shot three points in as many minutes as well as bouncing the ball off the post.

At that stage Kanturk appeared to be in dire trouble but they pulled themselves together and fought back well. However, they failed to score and Donnacha Moynihan and Sean Culloty had Newmarket points to level the scores before Mark O’Sullivan goal gave them the lead.

In the next fifteen minutes Newmarket added points from Neily McCarthy and Danny Culloty while Kanturk had one from Timothy Healy (Free). Then with little over a minute left Sean Culloty clinched the issue for Newmarket with a low shot to the net after gaining possession from a fine centre by Donnacha Moynihan. After that, Kanturk’s last point by Eamonn Barry was very much a consolation score.

The match was played on 17th of June in Rockchapel, Final score was Newmarket 2-10 to Kanturk 0-10. The team on the day was as follows:

Bernard Dugdale
John Kenneally		Donal Flatherty		Jimmy Browne
John Dugdale		Micheal Cottrell		Tommy Browne
	Danny Culloty (0-4)		Neily McCarthy (0-2)
John Sheehan (0-2)		Mark O’Sullivan (1-0)		John Hartnett
Vincent Twomey		Sean Culloty (1-1)		Donnacha Moynihan(0-1)
Subs used: John Tarrant, Michael Mulcahy

Referee: Richard Murphy, Lyre.