Newmarket completed preparations for next Sunday’s Premier Intermediate football championship game against Kiskeam (in Kanturk at 4pm) with a hard fought home league victory over Grenagh by 1-15 to 1-13 at Newmarket on Sunday evening.

 Newmarket got off to a blistering start and within seconds had two points on the board thanks to Mark Reidy and David O’Flynn. They maintained the better of proceedings in the opening segment with Denys O’Brien kicking a sublime pass onto Seanie Francis O’Connor and he applied a terrific finish for a third point. In the ninth minute, full forward John Lane took advantage of some indecision in the Grenagh defence to snap the ball and tuck it into the back of the net for a six point lead. Grenagh eventually forged themselves into the contest and added three points by the fifteenth minute. Newmarket gained momentum again with T.J. Bodie applying a neat finish to a fine team move before the same player chipped in with two further points. Newmarket, with Kevin O’Connor and John Ryan to the fore in defence, enhanced their position further through points from Denys O’Brien and T.J. Bodie. Grenagh had the final score of the half but Newmarket ended a satisfactory thirty minutes in the lead by 1-8 to 0-4.

 Grenagh made their intentions clear for the second half as they cut the deficit by two points within five minutes. Newmarket settled upon John Lane converting a free but Grenagh added two more points in response. A point from Maurice Feehan gave Newmarket a lead of 1-10 to 0-8 at the three quarter stage. Grenagh kept plugging away and clipping at the Newmarket lead and two more points brought the arrears to a clear goal. Newmarket, driven on by the superb Barry O’Leary, regrouped, with David O’Flynn kicking a memorable point before John Lane found the target from a free. However, the issue was always in the balance and never more so than in the final five minutes when Grenagh struck for a goal and quickfire point to leave the score at 1-12 to 1-11 and on edge. Once more Newmarket found the reserve to kick on and despite John Lane having a point answered with a Grenagh score, Newmarket swept forward again with Denys O’Brien and T.J. Bodie adding two superbly executed points for a three point lead. Grenagh had a close in free at the death to try and retrieve an equalizing goal but the ball blazed over the bar and Newmarket held on for victory.

The Newmarket team was…

Niall O’Connor
Anthony Crowley		Mark Murphy		Kevin O’Connor
John Ryan		Barry O’Leary		Bart Daly
	Denys O’Brien (0-2)		Timothy Murphy
Maurice Feehan (0-1)		Mark Reidy (0-1)		David O’Flynn (0-2)
Tony O’Keeffe		John Lane (1-3)		Seanie Francis O’Connor (0-1)
SUBS: T.J. Bodie (0-5), Conor Cronin, Kevin O’Sullivan.