Newmarket’s intermediate footballers were denied in their opening league Division 3 encounter away to Kildorrery, where a strong display in the final quarter saw the home side claim a narrow victory by 0-11 to 0-9.

Newmarket, playing with the assistance of the breeze in the first half got off to a blistering start when they split open the home defence and centre half forward, Mark Reidy pointed within thirty seconds. Newmarket continued to impress in the early exchanges and another neat passage of play resulted with John Lane kicking over a fine point in the second minute. Bart Daly increased the advantage when he expertly converted a forty five in the fifth minute and in the ninth minute another well worked move resulted in T.J. Bodie slotting over a fourth point.

Kildorrery had been wasteful early on but two quickfire points brought them right back into contention by the end of the opening quarter. The sides went on to exchange points with John Lane first off the mark for Newmarket in the eighteenth minute. Newmarket were grateful to their outstanding goalkeeper, Niall O’Connor who was superlative throughout and in the space of six minutes he pulled off two incredible stops. During this period, Newmarket added two points thanks to Seanie Francis O’Connor and John Lane. The half ended with a Kildorrery point as Newmarket turned around at the interval in front by 0-7 to 0-4.

Newmarket faced a battle in the second half against the strong breeze and two points within a minute cut the deficit to just a solitary point within six minutes. Newmarket had their first point of the half in the tenth minute when T.J. Bodie clipped over a point from a tight angle. Kildorrery had the next point but another fine finish from T.J. Bodie restored a two point advantage for Newmarket at the end of the third quarter, however this proved to be Newmarket’s final score of the contest. The home side gradually assumed supremacy and as the game entered the final ten minutes, Newmarket’s lead was cut to a single point. Once more, Newmarket goalkeeper pulled off another incredible save but the home side tied the scores for the only time in the contest at 0-9 apiece with seven minutes remaining. Eventually they hit the front and as the game entered injury time they sealed the contest in the final segment of play.

The Newmarket team was  

Niall O’Connor
Conor Cronin		Mark Murphy		Brian O’Riordan
Sean Doody		Barry O’Leary		Bart Daly (0-1)
	Kevin O’Sullivan		Timothy Murphy
Maurice Feehan		Mark Reidy (0-1)		Maurice Feehan
John Lane (0-3)		T.J. Bodie (0-3)		Seanie Francis O’Connor (0-1)