Newmarket concluded their preparations for next Saturday’s championship quarter final against Glenville, when they travelled to Brinny on Sunday to take on Valley Rovers and they emerged from the top of the table league contest with a fine victory by 2-11 to 1-7.

T.J. Bodie who had an excellent game kicked Newmarket in front in the second minute. The equally impressive Tony O’Keeffe pointed next as Newmarket made the most of limited opportunities during the opening exchanges. Valley Rovers got on the scoreboard in the tenth minute but instantly some excellent build up play from the resultant kick out ended with Tony O’Keeffe and David O’Flynn putting Maurice Feehan through on goal and he duly kept his composure to slot the ball to the corner of the net. The sides then exchanged points with John Ryan on target from a free for Newmarket. Valley Rovers halved the deficit by scoring the next two points but Newmarket defended well to keep their lead intact. Some superb endeavour by Tony O’Keeffe resulted in a turnover for Newmarket and T.J. Bodie was on hand to kick over a point after taking a pass from Nicky Flanagan. A tight first half ended with the home side adding a point and Newmarket turned over in front by 1-4 to 0-5.

Substitute John Lane made an immediate impact by punching a point within seconds of the restart. Denys O’Brien and T.J. Bodie landed a couple of fine scores from distance as Newmarket began to take control. Valley Rovers had to wait eleven minutes for their first score of the half but by the end of the quarter an impressive Newmarket unit were boosted and rewarded for their efforts thanks to two quickfire Tony O’Keeffe points, to leave the score 1-9 to 0-6. Valley Rovers pointed next and breached the Newmarket defence for a goal as the game entered the final ten minutes and now just two points separated the teams. Newmarket dug deep with some excellent performances throughout the field. Denys O’Brien and John Lane added points before Newmarket sealed the contest when another superb move ended with T.J. Bodie playing an exquisite ball into John Lane who laid the ball off quickly to Tony O’Keeffe and he drilled a peach of a goal to the top corner of the net.

The Newmarket team was:

Niall O’Connor
Pa O’Brien		John McSweeney		Mark Murphy
Brian O’Riordan		Barry O’Leary		Mark Reidy
	Denys O’Brien (0-2)		Bart Daly
Maurice Feehan (1-0)		, T.J. Bodie (0-3)		David O’Flynn
John Ryan (0-1)		Tony O’Keeffe (1-3)		Nicky Flanagan
SUBS: John Lane (0-2), Gerard Casey, Sean Doody