Newmarket suffered a narrow defeat against Valley Rovers in the replay of the intermediate football Division 3 league semi final for 2008, played at Cloughduv on Monday evening, the game ending 1-9 to 0-11 after an entertaining contest.

Early exchanges were tight on a perfect playing surface and the first score arrived in the ninth minute when Valley Rovers pointed. They doubled their lead two minutes later and by the end of the quarter they received a boost when they raced through the Newmarket defence to strike the only goal of the contest. Newmarket recovered well and T.J. Bodie kicked their opening point in the sixteenth minute. Newmarket began to dominate and some fine approach play was rewarded with John Ryan pointing on two occasions. Valley Rovers restored a three point advantage but a fluent moving Newmarket were further aided with John Ryan slotting over two converted frees and the sides turned over with just a single point between them, 1-3 to 0-5.

Valley Rovers resumed the sharper side and they hit three unanswered points within ten minutes. The industrious Maurice Feehan kicked a point for Newmarket and another fine effort from Tony O’Keefee brought them right back into contention. Valley Rovers struck back and two points gave them a lead of 1-9 to 0-8 with fifteen minutes to play. Newmarket stepped up their challenge and some excellent build up play resulted in points from T.J. Bodie and Kevin O’Sullivan. As the game entered the final ten minutes a Valley Rovers point gave them a clear three point lead but Newmarket dominated territorially, driven on by some excellent individual displays. T.J. Bodie converted a free but Valley Rovers defended resolutely until Brian O’Riordan strode forward to kick a late point. Unfortunately for Newmarket, time ran out and a fine team effort just fell short.

For Newmarket team captain David O’Flynn was inspirational while the superb displays of Denys O’Brien and Pa O’Brien epitomised the efforts of their fellow teammates.

The Newmarket team was

Niall O’Connor
Pa O’Brien		Barry O’Leary		Mark Murphy
Conor Cronin		Brian O’Riordan (0-1)		Nicky Flanagan
	Denys O’Brien		Kevin O’Sullivan (0-1)
T.J. Bodie (0-3)		David O’Flynn		Maurice Feehan (0-1)
John Ryan (0-4)		Tony O’Keeffe (0-1)		John Lane
SUBS: Colin O’Sullivan, Mark Reidy, Shane Anthony Murphy