Newmarket completed their intermediate league campaign and preparations for the upcoming Premier Intermediate Football Championship final with a well earned victory away to Mallow by 1-13 to 2-5 on Tuesday night.

Rain showers that preceded the game made for a slippery surface and initially the home side adapted better with a point after four minutes. Newmarket settled and were buoyed by a great move in the eighth minute which led to an excellent goal. Colin O’Sullivan drilled a pass forward into the path of Nicky Flanagan who quickly offloaded to Tony O’Keeffe and in turn he found John Lane, who side stepped the advancing goalkeeper to slip the ball into an empty net.

Nicky Flanagan converted a twelfth minute free as Newmarket found their rhythm. Denys O’Brien and Mark Reidy led in defence as several moves swept the length of the pitch. Newmarket eventually found their scoring touch in the final ten minutes of the half. Bart Daly converted a forty five before John Lane cut through the Mallow defence to punch a point. T.J. Bodie’s accuracy was unerring on the night and he kicked over his first point with a well taken score in the twenty fourth minute. Nicky Flanagan and Kevin O’Sullivan increased the advantage before a memorable score completed Newmarket’s tally for the half. Mark Reidy instigated a move deep in defence with Colin O’Sullivan, T.J. Brosnan and Nicky Flanagan involved in setting up T.J. Bodie to kick an excellent point.

Mallow ended the half with a point but Newmarket turned over from a productive display with a lead of 1-7 to 0-2.

Newmarket drove forward immediately upon the throw in and as Kevin O’Sullivan advanced in on goal he laid the ball off to T.J. Bodie to once again bisect the posts with a fine score.  A minute later, Newmarket had to call upon goalkeeper Niall O’Conner to produce an excellent stop with Brian O’Riordan helping the resultant rebound to safety. Newmarket stretched their advantage thanks to points from T.J. Bodie and Nicky Flanagan as they enjoyed an eleven point lead, ten minutes into the second half.

Mallow struck for a goal in the following minute but the clinical Nicky Flanagan ensured a lead of 1-11 to 1-2 midway through the half. Mallow finished the game strongly. A quickly taken free was dispatched to the net eleven minutes from time and two further points brought the deficit to four points with six minutes remaining. Nicky Flanagan scored a point to quell the comeback but Newmarket were grateful to substitute goalkeeper David Quinlan who produced a stunning save to spread himself and thwart a certain goal when one on one with an advancing attacker.

The excellent Denys O’Brien drove a ball in the direction of John Lane who did superbly to split the Mallow rearguard and kick over Newmarket’s final score on the night. Mallow did have the final score but Newmarket ended victors and now all talk and roads will lead to Pairc Uí Chaoimh and a historic county final appearance against Clyda Rovers on October 16th.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

Nicky Flanagan (0-5), John Lane (1-2), T.J. Bodie (0-4), Bart Daly (0-1), Kevin O’Sullivan (0-1).

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