Newmarket began their 2018 league campaign with a 2-13 to 1-09 win over Aghabullogue, on Sunday, February 4th, in Coachford.

Newmarket began liveliest of the two sides, with Bart Daly playing a lovely ball into Tony Charlie O’Keeffe, who laid off the ball to Darren O Keeffe, to kick the first score of the game. The away side then pushed further ahead when a Daniel Culloty free hit the post, which he gathered the re-bound and riffled to the roof the net. Newmarket led 1-02 to no score after four minutes. The home team registered their first score on the sixth minute from a free, however moments later TJ Brosnan surged through the middle and finished low into the Aghabullogue net. From the resulting kick out Aghabullogue had a goal chance, only to be denied by a brilliant save from goalkeeper Shane McAuliffe. With each individual on the traveling team working extremely hard, it provided Newmarket with another goal chance only for it to be put over the bar. The score-line now read 2-05 to 0-04 in favour of the visitors after 20 minutes. The teams traded scores before the break and at half time scoreboard showed 2-07 to 0-05.

Newmarket began the second half with an early score coming from Ryan O’Keeffe. Seven minutes into the second half, Newmarket introduced the ever lively forward Barry O’Connor, who marked his introduction with a point, coming from his first touch of the ball. Aghabullogue bagged a goal back on the forty minutes mark. The scoreline was now 2-09 to 1-06 in favour of Newmarket. In the opening fifteen minutes of the second half Aghabullogue showed more energy in their play, however they were unable phase the Newmarket players. With a heavy pitch and a huge work rate given as the second half wore on, the away team began using the subs bench, to introduce some fresh legs. The teams traded scores once again and when the final whistle was blown, the visitors were victorious on a score-line of 2-13 to 1-09.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

Daniel Culloty (1-07, 3F), TJ Brosnan (1-01), Darren O’Keeffe (0-02), Barry O’Connor (0-02), Ryan O’Keeffe (0-01)

Shane McAuliffe
Paudie Allen		Aidan Browne		Donnacha Fitzpatrick
Bart Daly		Alan Ryan		Gavin Forde
	T. J. Brosnan		Mikey Cottrell
Darren O'Keeffe		Donal Hannon		Eddie Allen
Ryan O'Keeffe		Daniel Culloty		Tony O'Keeffe
Subs: TJ Bodie, Cathal Browne, Jeremy Murphy, Paddy Browne, Barry O'Connor