Newmarket’s senior football team maintained their excellent league form and strengthened their position at the top of Division 3 with a well earned victory away to Macroom by 1-11 to 0-8 on Friday evening.

Macroom opened the scoring but Newmarket fashioned an equalizer through the exploits of T.J. Brosnan who overturned possession and burst forward from his half back position before launching a superb kick from forty five yards.

Macroom were wasteful in the early stages but they did regain the lead for a second time. Newmarket gained parity  once again with John Lane pointing. Newmarket hit the front for the first time when David O’Flynn linked well with his fellow forwards before being on hand to finish the move for his sides third point.

Matters improved for Newmarket when they struck for the games only goal. John Lane won possession from a sideline and offloaded to the on rushing Tony O’Keeffe who drew the defence before placing Nicky Flanagan in on goal and he coolly dispatched the ball into the net past the Macroom goalkeeper.

Macroom replied with a point but Newmarket ended the half in the ascendancy as points followed from a Nicky Flanagan free from distance and Kevin O’Sullivan who finished in fine fashion after gathering possession initially from the endeavour of Timothy Murphy. This enabled Newmarket to enter the half time break with a lead of 1-5 to 0-3.

Macroom were first to score upon the resumption but Kevin O’Sullivan responded for Newmarket on punching a point. The sides then exchanged pointed frees with T.J. Bodie on target from distance. The next score initiated from the industrious Denys O’Brien deep in defence and ended with Nicky Flanagan supplying the finishing touch to point. Macroom were next to score but Newmarket held a lead of 1-8 to 0-6. Newmarket’s position became more advantageous thanks to two excellent points. Firstly, John Lane somehow managed to point off his left leg from a difficult angle and Brian O’Riordan advanced forward to kick a memorable score.

Macroom pointed for a seventh time but substitutes Daniel Culloty and Eddie Allen combined before the former kicked another fine score for Newmarket. Macroom completed the scoring but Newmarket with a solid performance and a well drilled defensive performance claimed an excellent away victory, their seventh from eight league outings.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

Nicky Flanagan (1-2), Kevin O’Sullivan (0-2), John Lane (0-2),  Daniel Culloty (0-1), David O’Flynn (0-1), T.J. Brosnan (0-1), T.J. Bodie (0-1), Brian O’Riordan(0-1).

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