Newmarket take over quells Kanturk burst

matched by Martin O’Riordan and Brendan Mullane for Kanturk. Again Newmarket gathered a return from points to Conor O’Keeffe and O’Connor only for Kanturk to hit back with a vengeance on a free by ‘keeper Barry Kenneally saw the sliothar land in the danger zone for Joe Carver to whip to the Newmarket net for a lead.

That score allowed Kanturk enjoy a positive spell, possessing a pep to their game on the encouraging efforts of Michael Hartnett, Kevin Smith, O’Riordan and Burke added points. Newmarket managed to stem the tide, O’Keeffe, Hannon and Jack Guiney points gained a 0-10 to 1-5 advantage at the short whistle. Kanturk restarted brightly, a Billy O’Keeffe point left the slimmest of margins between the pair.

However Newmarket discovered a rhythm and began to play with a degree of confidence and conviction in the key areas. Shining facets in the winners game were defenders Robert Stack and Gavin Forde, midfielder Guiney, O’Keeffe and O’Connor in attack. Performing the more controlled hurling, Hannon kept the scoreboard ticking as did O’Connor and Shane Murphy.

Trying to retrieve a widening gap was always going to be tough on Kanturk, relying on Burke pointed frees to add to the scoreboard.

Clearly, the momentum remained with Newmarket, power and purpose in the side as the scores added up per O’Connor, Niall Ronan and Hannon. Kanturk kept battling defiantly in the face of the inevitable yet they can take encouragement ahead of a back door assignment to remain in the championship.