Newmarket’s senior footballers established themselves in pole position of Division 3 with a dogged, hard earned, narrow home victory over Grenagh by 1-9 to 0-8 on Tuesday night.

The game failed to ignite on a slippery playing surface and a disjointed contest resulted. T.J. Bodie provided the inspiration on the scoreboard for Newmarket in the first half and opened his account on pointing a free in the eighth minute. Grenagh pointed from similar means two minutes later. Newmarket added their only point from play during the half in the thirteenth minute as David O’Flynn and John Lane linked up before T.J. Bodie pointed masterfully with his left boot. Grenagh again responded to level in a low scoring encounter. The sides traded points for a third time as T.J. Bodie was again accurate from a set piece. As the half entered the closing five minutes, T.J. Bodie added another brace of points to edge Newmarket in front but a Grenagh point late in the half ensured Newmarket took a slender advantage, 0-5 to 0-4 into the break.

Grenagh pointed within two minutes to tie the sides for a fourth time. Despite undoubted endeavour, it was again left to T.J. Bodie to add to the tally as he pointed for a sixth time, nine minutes into the half. Newmarket were lining out without a few regulars but for the first time this year, they were able to call upon the services of Mark Reidy and Bart Daly and the latter marked his return with the first of two superbly executed dead balls, on drilling a forty five straight between the posts after eleven minutes of the half.

Grenagh failed to be deterred and a duo of points established parity once more with twelve minutes remaining.

The significant breakthrough followed a minute later. The excellent John Ryan launched a long delivery deep into the Grenagh half which was gathered by the outstanding David O’Flynn. The tireless and wonderfully industrious wing forward passed to Nicky Flanagan, and from a narrow angle on the edge of the square he rammed an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net for an all important goal. Newmarket strengthened their position as for a second time Bart Daly pointed sublimely from long distance. The lead was increased to five when Denys O’Brien found himself fourteen yards out from the Grenagh goal and he expertly distributed a kicked pass which found substitute Eddie Allen in space and in a great position from which he duly slotted over the crossbar for just Newmarket’s second point from play.

Grenagh rallied towards the end and despite a point they attempted to rescue the contest with an all important goal. However, Newmarket held firm and claimed a sixth victory from seven league encounters to date.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

T.J. Bodie (0-6), Nicky Flanagan (1-0), Bart Daly (0-2), Eddie Allen (0-1)

David Quinlan
John Ryan		Denys O'Brien		Brian O’Riordan
Timothy Murphy		Bart Daly		Paudie Allen
	Colin O'Sullivan		Mark Reidy
David O’Flynn		T.J. Bodie		Tony O'Keeffe
Daniel Culloty		Nicky Flanagan		John Lane
Subs: Alan Ryan, Eddie Allen