Coming into their game against Castletownbere on Saturday night last, the 16th of October, Newmarket sat bottom of Group C of the Premier Intermediate Championship, with one point after two games. While in an unenviable position, with no team were guaranteed qualification, Newmarket knew victory opened the door to a potential quarter final place.

Barry O’Connor, a late change to the Newmarket lineup, opened the scoring on two minutes, with Darren O’Keeffe doubling the lead four minutes later. The advantage was quickly cancelled out though, with the sides level shortly after. The Beara men then took the lead and maintained it until the first water break. After the resumption, scores from Tim Murphy and Darren O’Keeffe briefly put Newmarket ahead, before the contest was all square again moments later, 0-04 a piece. On an evening where incessant rain, combined with a floodlit field, made scores hard to come by, Castletownbere netted a valuable goal on 22 minutes. That proved to be the final score of the half, with Newmarket left ruing their eight wides, during the period.

Like the first half, Barry O’Connor registered the opening score, with Castletownbere cancelling it out shortly after. Indeed, the Beara men went on to score two further points, to take a commanding 0-05 to 1-07 lead, on 42 minutes. Newmarket began to work their way back into the match with a brace of scores from Conor O’Keeffe, in consecutive minutes. A third point from O’Keeffe ensured his side only trailed by two, entering the final water break. On 51 minutes Newmarket got the breakthrough required, when an O’Keeffe ball into the danger area was fisted into the Castletownbere net by Kevin O’Sullivan. Ryan O’Keeffe added to Newmarket’s tally moments later. Castletownbere reduced the arrears to a single point on 56 minutes and came searching for an equalising score. Newmarket controlled the ball in the closing period and saw out the remaining minutes, to secure a fantastic comeback win, 1-09 to 1-08. With Aghada defeating Na Piarsaigh in the other group game, it meant Newmarket’s win, elevated themselves to second place in the group and into a county quarter final against Naomh Abán. Áth Trasna Abú!

The Newmarket team and scorers…

Conor O’Keeffe (0-03), Kevin O’Sullivan (1-0), Darren O’Keeffe (0-02), Barry O’Connor (0-02), Tim Murphy (0-01), Ryan O’Keeffe (0-01).

Ben Newman
Mikey Browne		Alan Ryan		Paudie Allen
Kevin O'Sullivan		Gavin Forde		Bart Daly
	Mikey Cottrell		Tim Murphy
Darren O'Keeffe		Cathal Browne		Barry O'Connor
Conor O'Keeffe		Ryan O'Keeffe		John Ryan
Subs: TJ Brosnan