Newmarket kicked off their U21 A Football Championship defence with a winning start over Boherbue in a cold Knocknagree on Friday night last.

Boherbue took the lead with a point in the early minutes but John lane responded quickly with a neat finish. A slow start meant Newmarket were on the defensive for the opening ten minutes. Boherbue took the lead once again on the 8th minute but Newmarket responded in good fashion.

After some good harrassing Kieran Lehane gathered the ball from Eddie Allen and pointed from the tightest of angles to level the scores once more. Boherbue again took the lead but John Lane pointed the next two scores to put Newmarket in front on the 24th minute. Robert Stack scored a fine long range effort after some good work from Ian Flanagan and Jack Birthley on the wing to make it 5 points to 3 in favour of Newmarket at the break of play.

Boherbue got off to another good start in the 2nd half and at the three quarter mark led proceedings on a scoreline of 0-7 to 0-6 with T.J. Brosnan kicking the point for Newmarket. It was in the final 10 minutes that Newmarket really stood up and John Lane equalised on 50 minutes. Then after an excellently placed kick out from the very solid David Quinlan, Robert Stack fielded and from the resulting play Newmarket gained the lead once more when Paul Verling kicked a neat point on 52 minutes. Ian Flanagan kicked the insurance point with a couple of minutes remaining.

The Newmarket defence stood up to a huge onslaught of pressure from the Boherbue attack and held out to record a hard fought win in the first round of the Championship. Brendan Stack, Mikey O’ Leary and Jack Birthley had very solid preformances in the defence and played very well on the night. Robert Stack and Conor Cronin did a good job at midfield while the forwards kicked some vital points when really needed. It was a very committed and spirited performance from the team and they were rewarded with a good win at the end of the night in Knocknagree.

The Newmarket team was…

David Quinlan
Andy Twomey		Brendan Stack		Mikey O’ Leary
Anthony Lynch		Paul Cashman		Jack Birthley
	Conor Cronin		Robert Stack (0-1)
Brian O’ Connell		T.J. Brosnan (0-1)		Ian Flanagan (0-1)
John Lane (0-4)		Eddie Allen		Kieran Lehane (0-1)
Subs: Timmy O’ Keeffe, David Enright, Paul Verling (0-1)