Newmarket’s senior football championship campaign came to a most disappointing conclusion following an emphatic defeat to Douglas by 2-14 to 0-4 at Mallow in Round 4 of the Evening Echo Championship on Saturday evening.

Douglas hit the front foot from the off and punished early Newmarket discretions with two converted frees within four minutes. Newmarket responded with T.J. Bodie alert to an error in defence before John Lane combined with Tony O’Keeffe who cut in on goal before punching a sixth minute point. Douglas were very sharp and attacked in waves with pace, and clinical finishing left team leading by 0-5 to 0-1 after eleven minutes play. Newmarket had some joy when T.J. Bodie converted a free midway through the first half. Douglas increased their tally with another couple of points as Newmarket struggled to stay in touch but T.J. Bodie did register a third point to reduce the margin to four after twenty two minutes. Unfortunately for Newmarket, this was to be as good as it got in terms of the overall contest. A powerful Douglas side swept over five points in quick succession to hold a commanding and comfortable lead of 0-12 to 0-3 at half time.

Newmarket resumed with a mountain to climb and despite a consorted effort they failed to alter the scoreboard. Seven minutes into the half any lingering hopes were crushed as Douglas smashed home a goal to compound the agony. Scores were few during the second half as Douglas were more adventurous in their shooting and as a result not as accurate as they added a single point in the third quarter. Newmarket struggled to make an impact with the industrious John Lane eventually ending a long barren spell on converting a free with six minutes remaining. Douglas finished with a second goal and another point to end an instantly forgettable encounter for Newmarket.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

T.J. Bodie (0-2), Tony O’Keeffe (0-1), John Lane (0-1).

David Quinlan
Brian O’Riordan		Denys O'Brien		John Ryan
Barry O'Leary		Mark Reidy		T. J. Brosnan
	Colin O'Sullivan		Bart Daly
David O’Flynn		Seanie Francis O Connor		Tony O'Keeffe
T.J. Bodie		Nicky Flanagan		John Lane
Subs: Padraig Allen, Kevin O’Sullivan, Timothy Murphy, Daniel Culloty, Michael Kenneally.