The Newmarket senior football team travelled to Blackrock on Thursday evening for a Division 2 League contest, but went down to a clear defeat against an impressive St. Michaels by 2-11 to 0-8.

Newmarket made an ideal start on a perfect, sunny evening for football. Timothy Murphy drilled the ball over the bar from distance in the opening seconds with Bart Daly lofting a fine effort from similar range in the third minute.

The home side wiped out the deficit with two points on the board by the seventh minute. St. Michaels proceeded to gain a stranglehold on possession and attacked at pace in waves. Newmarket found themselves under severe pressure as a flurry of points gave the hosts at lead of 0-6 to 0-2 midway through the half.

Unfortunately, matters did not improve for Newmarket and following a point in the nineteenth minute, a goal two minutes later put Newmarket firmly on the backfoot. Another St. Michaels point left them to plunder a goal and eight points without reply in a dominant twenty minute spell.

Newmarket improved as the half concluded and were rewarded when Daniel Culloty kicked over their third quality point.

As the half time whistle signalled the end of the half, St. Michaels enjoyed an interval lead of 1-8 to 0-3.

Newmarket resumed in far better fettle. Colin O’Sullivan, now lining out at full forward, showed fantastic aerial ability and caused no end of problems in the early stages of the half. Newmarket did however, miss three resultant frees although all were of a difficult nature. John Ryan did pop over a free in the sixth minute and was again very involved as Paddy O’Toole strode forward to point as his shot narrowly escaped the crossbar. This would prove to be Newmarket’s best spell and indeed they paid harshly for their missed chances, as St. Michaels netted for a second time, with their first second half score in the eleventh minute.

John Ryan added his second point but by the end of the third quarter, St. Michaels maintained an eight point lead, 2-8 to 0-6. St. Michaels continued to pierce the Newmarket defence despite a resilient showing from Padraig Allen. The next two points were shared as Daniel Culloty converted a free. St. Michaels closed out their clearcut win with a brace of points, but Newmarket did have the final say as Eddie Allen clipped over a point following a neat build up.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

Daniel Culloty (0-2), John Ryan (0-2), Paddy O’Toole (0-1), Bart Daly (0-1), Timothy Murphy (0-1), Eddie Allen (0-1)

David Quinlan
Barry O'Leary		Brian O’Riordan		Paudie Allen
Paddy O'Toole		T. J. Brosnan		Gavin Forde
	Colin O'Sullivan		Bart Daly
John Ryan		Tim Murphy		Michael Kenneally
Eddie Allen		Michael Cottrell		Daniel Culloty
Subs: Jonathan Flaherty, Brendan Stack.