Newmarket 0-26

O’Donovan Rossa 1-18

BRENDAN KENNEALLY REPORTS

O’DONOVAN Rossa will regret their poor start in this McCarthy Insurance Group Senior A Football Championship Group 2 game at Macroom on Sunday evening.

They found themselves 0-10 to no score in arrears after the opening 12 minutes, having been steam-rolled by the Duhallow men.

When Rossas, at last, stopped the rot and the play evened out, the Skibb side showed that they were fully capable of matching their physically stronger opponents in all aspects of the game.

With Kevin Davis in superb kicking form, Rossas were only six points in arrears at the interval, 0-15 to 0-9. They had the deficit down to three points by the 56th minute, with a goal from Dylan Hourihane Snr leaving the outcome now uncertain.

But Newmarket finished the stronger with points from Darren O’Keeffe and Hugh O’Connor finally breaking the Skibb revival.

In a very competitive group, Rossas will now face Carbery Rangers on August 15th and that encounter will likely be key to how both fare in the group. Rossas can take heart from how they recovered here.

Newmarket had the strong wind advantage in the first half and were 0-3 to the good after five minutes. Their advantage stretched to six points by the ninth minute and a two-pointer from Cathal Browne had the Duhallow men leading by 0-10 in the 12th minute.

The flow of play was almost continuously towards the Skibb goal with the Newmarket defence giving strong support to their dominant midfield and their attack revelling in the quality supply. Ryan O’Keeffe was in lethal form from frees and Derek Tobin in the Skibb goal had kept his side in contention with some smart saves.

Rossas got a score on the board when Kevin Davis placed David Shannon for a 13th minute point. The introduction of Colm O’Driscoll instilled a competitive edge around the midfield area from where Luca Harte was trying to get the attack moving.

Davis had a point from play and another from a free, and even though Newmarket replied, there was a noticeable improvement in the Rossas play with Kevin Davis operating well at centre forward.

Points were exchanged before Davis twice kicked over two-pointer frees in the five minutes before half time which left his side still six points in arrears, 0-15 to 0-9, but now showing that they could get points on the board.

Davis kicked another two-pointer on the resumption and David Shannon had a point but Newmarket countered with three points to maintain the six-point gap after eight minutes.

Another two-pointer from Davis and a point from Colm O’Driscoll left only three points between the teams but Cork hurler Hugh O’Connor kicked a vital two-pointer for the Duhallow men.

After Thomas Hegarty had a Rossa point, Darren O’Keeffe kicked another two-pointer for the winners to open a seven-point lead after 53 minutes, 0-23 to 0-16.

A goal from Dylan Hourihane Snr after a Davis free landed in the Newmarket goalmouth on 55 had the West Cork men right back in contention. Davis added a point from a free to leave only three points between the teams but Newmarket were up to the challenge.

Scores from Daren O’Keeffe and Hugh O’Connor helped them safely home despite frantic Rossa efforts to save the day which yielded a point from Thomas Hegarty.

Scorers 

Newmarket: H O’Connor 0-8 (2 2pt, 1f); D O’Keeffe (2pt), R O’Keeffe (2ptf, 45) 0-4 each; C Browne (2pt), B O’Connor 0-3 each; A Browne, B O’Keeffe, R Lynn, D Cottrell 0-1 each.

O’Donovan Rossa: K Davis 0-12 (3 2ptf, 2pt, 3f); D Hourihane Snr 1-0; D Shannon, T Hegarty 0-2 each; N Daly, C O’Driscoll 0-1 each.

O’Donovan Rossa: Derek Tobin; James Goulding, Darren Daly, Alan Daly; Ciarán Coombes, Seán Fitzgerald, Kevin Hurley; Luca Harte, Fionn Coombes; Niall Daly, Kevin Davis, Dylan Hourihane; Elliot Connolly, David Shannon, Luke O’Sullivan.

Subs: Colm O’Driscoll for Hurley (13), Oisín Lucey for Hourihane (ht), Dylan Hourihane Snr for F Coombes (ht), Thomas Hegarty for Shannon (38), Frank Hurley for D Daly (57).

Newmarket: Josh O’Keeffe; Mikey Browne, Gavin Forde, Eoin Goggin; Aidan Browne, Bart Daly, Rory Lynn; Cathal Browne, Mikey Cottrell; Hugh O’Connor, Dafrren O’Keeffe, David Cottrell; Brian O’Keeffe, Ryan O’Keeffe, Barry O’Connor.

Referee: David Murnane (Macroom).