Newmarket’s intermediate footballers opened their season with a victory over St. Michael’s by 1-10 to 0-4 in Division 3 of the league at Dromtariffe on Sunday.

St. Michael’s were first to get off the mark when they pointed after five minutes. The lively John Lane levelled the sides with a well worked score two minutes later. St. Michael’s took the lead again before Tony O’Keeffe pointed at the end of the opening quarter. A strong cross field breeze proved difficult but Newmarket came into their own in the second quarter. John Lane put Newmarket into the lead for the first time before they struck for a crucial goal in the twentieth minute. A forty five from Bart Daly was caught on the edge of the square by David O’Flynn who laid the ball off to Tony O’Keeffe and he found the top corner of the net. Newmarket playing with confidence added to their lead with some impressive play and were rewarded with points from T.J. Bodie, Maurice Feehan and John Lane. The backs were particularly impressive with Mark Reidy in fine form and also Sean Doody and Conor Cronin who excelled in his first game in this grade. Newmarket led at half time by 1-6 to 0-2.

St. Michael’s resumed in strong fashion and put Newmarket under pressure time and again, and this yielded two points in nine minutes. Newmarket withstood this tricky period and John Lane scored a much needed point at the end of the third quarter to restore a six point advantage. Tony O’Keeffe got another score before John Lane finished the contest with two late points and seal an opening victory for Newmarket.

The Newmarket team was…

Niall O’Connor
Pa O’Brien		John McSweeney		Mark Reidy
Conor Cronin		Barry O’Leary		Sean Doody
	Denys O’Brien		Bart Daly
T.J. Bodie (0-1)		David O’Flynn		Maurice Feehin (0-1)
John Lane (0-6)		Colin O’Sullivan		Tony O’Keeffe (1-2)
Subs used: John Ryan, Gerard Casey, Shane Murphy.