Newmarket and Carrigaline drew 0-7 apiece in a tight contest in the County Under 21 football championship quarter final played at Donoughmore on Saturday evening.

Newmarket were quick off the mark and John Lane slotted over a free in the opening minute. The impressive Nicky Flanagan added to the lead when he reacted quickly to a ball that rebounded off an upright and slotted over a point. Carrigaline scored their first point of the evening in the ninth minute but John Ryan regained Newmarket’s two point advantage when kicking over a score after fourteen minutes. Carrigaline scored the next two points and the sides were level for the first time after nineteen minutes. Both defences were on top as both sides struggled to make an impact during a dour first half and neither side managed another score in the remainder of the half. A feature of the game throughout was some fine tenatious defensive play.

Newmarket re-emerged for the second half in impressive fashion. The excellent Paul Cashman kicked his side in front again within two minutes. John Ryan increased the lead thanks to a sublime effort moments later. Carrigaline replied with a point but again John Ryan lit up the contest by kicking another fine score. Carrigaline pointed next to leave the score 0-6 to 0-5 at the end of the third quarter as both sides sought to gain the upper hand. Bart Daly ended a free flowing Newmarket move by fisting a point but this proved to be Newmarket’s final score of the contest with thirteen minutes still to play. Inevitably Carrigaline got themselves back into contention despite Newmarket’s best efforts to keep them at bay and with three minutes remaining they reduced the deficit to a solitary point. As the game entered the final moments they gained parity for the second time. Both sides held on despite a few nervy moments and as the game concluded a draw was a fair outcome.

The Newmarket team was:

Niall O’Connor
Paul Cashman (0-1)		Brian O’Riordan		Brendan Stack
Conor Cronin		Bart Daly (0-1)		Robert Stack
	Timothy Murphy		Kevin O’Sullivan
John Ryan (0-3)		T.J. Bodie		Ian Flanagan
John Lane (0-1)		John Scanlon		Nicky Flanagan (0-1)
SUBS: Gerry McCarthy, Anthony Lynch