Newmarket travelled to Freemount on Thursday evening to face the home side in their latest junior B hurling league outing and came away with a fine victory by 2-12 to 0-10.

Freemount settled better in the early exchanges and once they opened the scoring in the fourth minute, they increased their advantage courtesy of three further unanswered points. Newmarket pointed for the first time in the nineteenth minute through Ian Flanagan and confidence grew as Donnacha O’Dea added another moment’s later. Newmarket were excellent in defence with team captain Robert Stack particularly outstanding throughout, while the five other defenders performed admirably. The sides traded points as Ian Flanagan converted his first free of the night. Freemount increased their advantage with the final score of the half and they turned over in front by 0-6 to 0-3.

Freemount added to their lead within a minute of the restart but Ian Flanagan replied with a pointed free for Newmarket.

The critical period of the game came six minutes into the half. Vinny Molloy struck a long delivery towards the Freemount goal and Nicky Barrett was on hand to finish to the net for an equalizing goal. Almost instantly, a similar scenario developed, this time it was Donnacha O’Dea who dropped the ball into the danger area and once more Nicky Barrett was on hand to supply a flawless finish to the net. Amazingly, it was Nicky Barrett in Newmarket’s next attack who clipped over a point and in a three minute period, the total landscape of the contest had changed and Newmarket held a lead of 2-5 to 0-7.

Newmarket visibly grew in confidence all over the field with Donnacha Fitzpatrick and Bryan O’Connell excelling either side of their inspiring leader Robert Stack, while behind them Michael O’Leary, Brendan Stack and William O’Flynn were superb. Two Freemount points cut the deficit to two points but a pointed free from Donnacha O’Dea had Newmarket in front by 2-6 to 0-9 by the end of the third quarter. A trio of frees on target through Donnacha O’Dea and a brace from Ian Flanagan followed as Newmarket took a six point advantage. Newmarket closed in on victory by adding three further points through Ian Flanagan (twice) and Paul Verling before a point for Freemount brought the scoring for the evening to an end.

The Newmarket team was…

Kieran Hayes
William O’Flynn		Brendan Stack		Michael O’Leary
Donnacha Fitzpatrick		Robert Stack		Bryan O’Connell
	Vinny Molloy		Ian Flanagan (0-7)
Nicky Barrett (2-1)		Donnacha O’Dea (0-3)		Kieran Lehane
Luke McCarthy		Billy Daly		Paul Verling (0-1)
SUB: Michael O’Neill