Newmarket’s minor hurlers commenced their league campaign with a narrow defeat, against Cuchulainns by 2-11 to 1-10 in a well contested game at Kanturk on Thursday evening.

The home side settled the quicker and two converted frees gave them an early advantage. Newmarket opened their account with an excellent point from Tadhg Ryan in the sixth minute. Cuchulainns found a way past Newmarket’s fine goalkeeper Shane McAuliffe for the first goal of the game and a point increased their advantage to five points after nine minutes of play.

Newmarket improved steadily as the game progressed and two pointed frees by Tadhg Ryan was reward for their efforts. Cuchulainns were next to score but Adrian Carroll replied with a well taken point for Newmarket. Cuchulainns again took their lead to four points, but Newmarket struck for a well worked goal in the twenty first minute. Jonathan Flaherty took off on a superb rampaging run towards goal before off loading to Adrian Carroll who made no mistake with a well drilled shot past the home side’s custodian. The sides were level for the first time as Tadhg Ryan found the target with an outstanding point from a difficult angle and the teams went into the interval level on 1-5 apiece.

Cuchulainns resumed with a point within seconds before Danny O’Connell replied with an equalizer for Newmarket three minutes later. The next score proved crucial as Cuchulainns found the net for a second time and two further points strengthened their position. Donal Hannon was introduced for Newmarket and he made an immediate impact on pointing two frees, which left the score reading 2-8 to 1-8 entering the final ten minutes. Cuchulainns found an extra gear and three unanswered points doubled their lead. Newmarket competed admirably to the end and despite not finding the net after a few close attempts, another brace of Donal Hannon points kept the outcome interesting to the conclusion.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

Adrian Carroll (1-1), Tadhg Ryan (0-4), Donal Hannon (0-4), Danny O’Connell (0-1).

Shane McAuliffe
	Jamie Hayes		Danny O'Connell
Liam Birthley		Paudie Allen		Eoin O'Connell
	Daniel O'Doherty		Alan Ryan
Adrian Carroll		Jacko Flaherty		Jack Guiney
	Tadhg Ryan		Shane Carroll
Subs: Donal Hannon, James Linehan