Newmarket and Naomh Aban must meet again following an exciting and intriguing drawn contest at Dromtariffe on Sunday afternoon, a game which finished level at 2-7 to 0-13 during which the sides were deadlocked on six occasions, five times in a memorable second half.

A tense opening to the game saw the action flow from end to end but scores proved elusive until Naomh Aban registered the first point in the eighth minute. The Gaeltacht side settled into their stride and three further points quickly followed by the midway point of the half. Newmarket struggled to make an impact and were punished by a further two points to Naomh Aban which gave them a commanding six point lead by the twentieth minute.

Newmarket’s challenge took a noticeable change following the introduction of substitute T.J. Brosnan who inspired a revival for the remainder of the half. In the twenty second minute he surged forward to kick an excellent point to get Newmarket on the scoreboard and the team lifted their level of performance in the attacking department instantly.

The influential T.J. Bodie was on hand to slot over a point from a free four minutes later. From the resultant kick out, Newmarket with Bart Daly and Colin O’Sullivan contesting admirably at midfield won possession from which they were awarded a free. Bart Daly dispatched a diagonal cross field ball which was well gathered by John Lane. He offloaded to the on running David O’Flynn who closed down on goal before placing a pass to Kevin O’Sullivan and he made no mistake to dispatch the ball to the back of the net and put a completely different complexion on the scoreboard.

The comeback was complete within a six minute spell as T.J. Bodie split the uprights to tie the sides, 0-6 to 1-3 less than two minutes to the interval. Naomh Aban ended the half with a point to take a slender advantage into the break, 0-7 to 1-3.

With Newmarket clearly gaining the impetus following the end of the half and playing with the advantage of a growing breeze the half resumed with Naomh Aban bursting forward from the throw in to point within seconds.

Newmarket settled into their pattern of play and revived their hopes seven minutes into the half. One of several well worked passing movements ended with John Lane shooting for a point and as his effort struck off the upright, T.J. Bodie reacted fastest to the rebounding ball and crashed the ball home to the back of the net past defenders and goalkeeper to give Newmarket the lead for the first time, 2-3 to 0-8.

Little separated the sides for the remainder of the game. Naomh Aban tied the sides thirteen minutes into the half as a similar pattern of scoring followed for the remainder of the game. Newmarket hit the front again at the three quarter mark as Bart Daly landed a spectacular point from distance. However, this was answered within a minute by an equalizing point.

Newmarket’s clever build up play saw a number of excellent performances with David O’Flynn central to several Newmarket attacks as the midfield and defenders placed well distributed passes into their forwards. T.J. Bodie pointed for the lead once more but yet again Naomh Aban gained parity as the game entered a tantalizing final ten minutes.

Newmarket seized the initiative once more as again T.J. Bodie was clinical on finding the target. An engrossing encounter saw the Naomh Aban side respond once again as neither side could forge out a telling advantage. Both sides saw possible goal chances go a begging but as the game entered the final moments both sides pressed forward and failed to settle for a draw. Newmarket hit the front for a final time in the second minute of injury time as an inspirational effort from distance by Kevin O’Sullivan was worthy of crowning any occasion. However, amazingly for one final time, yet again, Naomh Aban would not be outdone and on being awarded a free, it was duly converted for the ultimate score of the contest. There was still time for Newmarket to muster a final attack and an excellent effort from distance dropped agonizingly into the hands of the Naomh Aban goalkeeper before an exhilarating contest was brought to a conclusion.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

T.J. Bodie (1-4), Kevin O’Sullivan (1-1), Bart Daly (0-1), T.J. Brosnan (0-1).

Niall O’Connor
Sean Doody		Denys O'Brien		Brian O’Riordan
Barry O'Leary		Timothy Murphy		John Ryan
	Bart Daly		Colin O'Sullivan
David O’Flynn		Kevin O'Sullivan		Tony O'Keeffe
T.J. Bodie		Nicky Flanagan		John Lane
Subs: T.J. Brosnan, Mark Reidy