Sixmilebridge 1-13 Newmarket 1-11

Sixmilebridge followed up their championship opening round win against Kilmaley, with a hard fought, but deserved, victory over near neighbours Newmarket on Tuesday evening in Shannon.

Mickey Corbett made a number of positional switches for this second round game, seeing David O'Meara move to full back, with Eric Lynch taking over at centre back. Ross O'Donnell moved out to midfield, with Michael O'Halloran starting on the wing.

Newmarket have been beaten Junior B finalists in 2016 and 2017, so Sixmilebridge were under no illusions of the task ahead of them as they took to the field. Sixmilebridge elected to play against the stiff breeze in the first half. Newmarket were first out of the blocks, with a point from play inside 30 seconds.

Ross O'Donnell got his first point of the day in the third minute to open the Sixmilebridge account. Michael O'Halloran pointed shortly afterwards following a smart pass from Martin Conlon, to put the 'Bridge ahead in the 5th minute - they would never go behind for the rest of the game. In the 6th minute, Errol Touhy continued his rich vein of form when he blasted the ball to the back of the Newmarket to make it 1-2 to 0-1.

Indeed in the next 7 minutes, Sixmilebridge went on a scoring frenzy outscoring Newmarket by 7 points to 1, leaving the score 1-9 to 0-2 after 14 minutes. In that 7 minute period, Martin Conlon and Ross O'Donnell scored twice, with O'Halloran, Errol Touhy and Jamie Lyons also contributing with minors.

However, the momentum very much swung in Newmarket’s favour in the 15 minutes before half time with 5 points of their own, followed by a goal right on the stroke of the small whistle. In this period, the solitary Sixmilebridge score was a pointed free from Ross O'Donnell which was won by Martin Conlon. The half time score was 1-10 to 1-7.

The second half was a far tighter affair, with scores very difficult to come by. It took 5 minutes of the second half before we got the half’s first score - another pointed free by Ross O'Donnell.

Billy Maxwell succumbed to a knee injury and was replaced by Brian O'Loughlin early in the second half. Unconfirmed speculation is that Billy tweaked the knee while performing Grease Lightning in Coppers on Saturday night, and that the knee had not sufficiently recovered. Billy is under-going intense cryo sessions in Muls as we speak.

The 'Bridge were then dealt a further blow as Caimin Barrett was issued a straight red card in the 9th minute of the second half. This put the 'Bridge men under massive pressure and they went a full 20 minutes without a score. In the meantime Newmarket had tagged on 4 pointed frees from Oisin Pender to level the game by the 25th minute. Sixmilebridge now had their backs to the wall, as they were playing with 14 men and all the momentum was with Newmarket entering the final straight.

However, Ross O'Donnell got the Bridge noses back in front on the 26th minute when he get got a superb point from play, from right out on the side-line. O'Donnell followed this up with a pointed free in the 28th minute to put a small glimpse of daylight between the sides. This was to be the final score of the match, ending on a score line of 1-13 to 1-11.

Mickey Corbett was rightly proud of his sides display. The lads showed massive hunger and determination, and a never say die attitude, to grind out this victory. The backs were under massive pressure in the second half and did exceptionally well to repel wave after wave of Newmarket attack.

The victory ensures a quarter final berth for the buzzers. The final game in the group is against Clonlara. Victory here would guarantee qualifying in top spot from the group. Although Barrett is likely to be missing due to suspension,

Mikey will be hoping to have three regulars, who were missing for the Newmarket game, available for selection again.

Duck Devanney was unavailable due to suspension, while JP Griffin is still recovering from a hamstring injury picked up a number of weeks ago. Indeed the Junior B's answer to Jamie Oliver - Trainee chef Mark O'Donovan - was also unavailable for selection, due to a right bad dose caused by a dodgy steak.

Heading of coaching, Ronan O'Shea, lauded his side’s efforts and the impact of Kieran Liddane, O'Shea said "I was shooting the breeze with Gerry and Donal during the week. I told them what we were planning to do with Liddane by deploying him as a sweeper, and you can bet your bottom dollar that’s what inspired the Colm Galvin move"

Best for the 'Bridge were Kieran Liddane who performed the sweeper role to perfection, Ross O'Donnell, Jamie Lyons, David O'Meara and Eric Lynch.

Team

Eric Purcell

Eamonn O’Donoghue, David O'Meara, Billy Maxwell;

Johnnie Hayes, Eric Lynch, Barry Corbett;

Ross O’Donnell, Kieran Liddane;

Michael O'Halloran, James O'Neill, Martin Conlon;

Jamie Lyons, Errol Touhy, Caimin Barrett.

Subs

Brian O’Loughlin for Billy Maxwell (40 mins)

Ian Chaplin

Ed Skehan

Dean McKenna

Jordan Ryan

Scorers

Ross O'Donnell (0-7, 0-4 frees)

Errol Touhy (1-1)

Michael O'Halloran (0-2)

Martin Conlon (0-2)

Jamie Lyons (0-1)