Newmarket were defeated in their initial outing of the Evening Echo Senior Football Championship at Mallow on Saturday evening, where a devastating display and scoring return in the final quarter by St. Finbarrs gave the city team a commanding and clear cut victory by 0-17 to 0-6. The final scoreline was harsh and scant reward on a Newmarket performance which kept them in touch up until the closing fifteen minutes, when their illustrious opponents stormed to the finish with an array of outstanding points.

It all began well for Newmarket and despite a couple of early wides, a loud cheer from the sizeable attendance greeted a well struck T.J. Bodie point in the fourth minute, which was fashioned by the input of Conor Cronin and the lively John Lane. St. Finbarrs levelled on pointing in the seventh minute but Newmarket were in front for a second time in their next attack with impressive debutant Paudie Allen, T.J. Bodie and John Lane involved before Seanie Francis O’Connor kicked a fine point from distance. The sides were level for a second time after thirteen minutes and a more clinical St. Finbarrs outfit began to turn the screw as they reeled off four more points in succession to establish a lead after twenty one minutes.

Newmarket were guilty of missing a string of scoring opportunities during the half in which they had a tally of eight wides.

Enjoying a period of dominance, Newmarket struck three wides before Kevin O’Sullivan found the target after a well placed kick pass from Timothy Murphy. Tellingly, St. Finbarrs went up the pitch from the resultant kick out and pointed to nullify Newmarket’s well earned score.

The half finished with T.J. Bodie finding the target from a free and the sides turned over with St. Finbarrs in front by 0-7 to 0-4 after an entertaining opening period.

Newmarket resumed with John Lane pointing in style for a well deserved personal point, with Timothy Murphy again supplying a telling pass in the build up, in the second minute. Five minutes into the half St. Finbarrs cut open the Newmarket defence and a powerful goal bound shot was saved in stunning fashion by David Quinlan in the goal to boost his team mates and the Newmarket contingent in the stand. However, it was St. Finbarrs who began to take a stranglehold on the contest and they added four points in seven minutes to lead by 0-11 to 0-5 midway through the half.

T.J. Bodie pointed next for Newmarket but again they failed to add to their tally when in favourable attacking positions. In contrast, St. Finbarrs showed little mercy and their quality surfaced more and more as the game developed.

A hard working Newmarket defence were now being forced to work overtime as St. Finbarrs dominated. The city side went on to register another three points to their increasing tally. Newmarket competed to the end and were offered a flicker of hope six minutes from time as John Lane was upended in the square, but the resultant penalty was well stopped by the St. Finbarrs custodian and the city side cemented their win with another three unanswered points.

Newmarket must now regroup and face Aghada in the second round in mid June.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

T.J. Bodie (0-3), Seanie Francis O’Connor (0-1), John Lane (0-1), Kevin O’Sullivan (0-1).

David Quinlan
Brian O’Riordan		Denys O’Brien		John Ryan
T. J. Brosnan		Barry O'Leary		Paudie Allen
	Timothy Murphy		Conor Cronin
David O’Flynn		Kevin O'Sullivan		Tony O'Keeffe
T.J. Bodie		Seanie Francis O Connor		John Lane
Subs: Sean Doody, Colin O’Sullivan, Daniel Culloty