Newmarket’s minor footballers brave defence of their county minor A league title came to an end , when they were defeated by Mitchelstown, 3-8 to 0-13 after a titanic struggle, that required extra time to separate the sides at Mitchelstown on Saturday last.

Newmarket began brightly and hit the front through points from John Ryan and Nicky Flanagan. However, Newmarket suffered a setback when goalkeeper Ian Flanagan had to be replaced following an injury sustained when taking a kickout. Mitchelstown opened their account in the nineteenth minute before gaining parity within a minute. John Lane edged Newmarket in front again following some fine build up play. Mitchelstown responded by scoring the games opening goal a minute later. Newmarket finished the half well with John Ryan hitting over a brace of points from frees to tie the sides at the interval, 0-5 to 1-2.
Mitchelstown resumed by regaining the lead on scoring two points. The next score did not arrive until eighteen minutes into the half when John Ryan was again on target. Mitchelstown restored their two point lead with the sides then exchanging points, yet again John Ryan the scorer. With less than five minutes to play the impressive Bart Daly surged forward to kick a fine score before John Ryan converted a free to tie the scores. The home side appeared to clinch victory with a late point but Newmarket battled gamely and were rewarded when John Ryan coolly slotted over a free from a difficult angle deep into injury time, to ensure extra time after a gripping contest ended 0-10 to 1-7.
Mitchelstown edged in front again but once more John Ryan pointed and even after the first period of extra time, the sides remained deadlocked 0-11 to 1-8. John Lane put Newmarket in front but within a minute Mitchelstown struck for a crucial second goal. John Ryan reduded the deficit to the minimum but another Mitchelstown goal settled the contest in the dying moments.
Newmarket put in a heroic effort with team captain Kevin O’Sullivan having a super game. Bart Daly, David Guiney and John Scanlon were prominent in defence while John Ryan was in superb form in attack contributing nine points. Well done to John Lane who was a member of the Cork Vocational Schools football panel the previous day.

Ian Flanagan
Paul Cashman		John Scanlon		David Guiney
Robert Stack		Bart Daly (0-1)		Brian O’Riordan
	Kevin O’Sullivan (Capt.)		Conor Cronin
Brian O’Connell		John Ryan (0-9)		Nicky Flanagan (0-1)
John Lane (0-2)		Billy Hourigan		Jerry McCarthy
SUBS: Danny Quinlan, Danny Allen