Newmarket Celtic B 7-2 Ennis Town A
The B team overcame Ennis Town to put themselves in the next round of the Munster Junior Cup despite the absence of talismanic duo and joint captains Eoin Kelly and Ryan Corry.
They were not the only absentees as management opted to give a debut to u16 goalkeeper Alan Reidy ahead of Niall Quinn. Kieran Ryan later revealed that it was because Quinno had 'let himself go' and 'marriage doesn't suit that man'.
2014 Premier Champions Ennis Town have hit hard times and are now struggling in the First Division but started well today and had Newmarket under significant pressure.
Despite that it was the hosts who took the lead through Monty Mulqueen who has himself described the goal as a thing of beauty. Unfortunately we can't confirm as I was digging in my coat pocket for a packet of skittles at the time.
A well worked equaliser followed soon after but it only sparked life into Newmarket again and for the second week in a row Seamus Considine was the one to settle the B teams nerves.
Known worldwide for his matrix style passing, it was his absolutely 100% on purpose ability to strike his shot off the knee of the defender and arc it around the goalkeeper that left all in attendance gobsmacked.
Ronan McCormack followed it up within a minute. He had two chances to beat the Ennis Town goalkeeper and made no mistake with the rebound.
Still there was question marks over the performance with Ennis Town posing a lot of questions. This sparked wide spread changes at half time.
And it was one of the changes who made the difference. The fourth goal came from the forehead of big Bernie Harkin who was making his first appearance after a long layoff from the game to make room for a love affair with The Sports Bar.
The former Liverpool trialist*** then set up fellow substitute Callum McNamara for his first and Newmarket's fifth.
A flick on from Adam Gilbert set up McNamara for his second before Ennis Town scored a fortunate second from a free kick to bring the scoreline back to 6-2.
Jamie Cronin supplied the ball for Michael Crosby to head in Newmarket's seventh and finish out the scoring for the afternoon.
An away game to Hermitage awaits in the next round.
Despite numerous phone calls from us here in the Newmarket Celtic press office to manager Mark O'Malley for a post match interview, we had to settle instead for his fourth in command Kieran Ryan.
The man commonly known as Noddy or Johnny's brother strolled into the press conference took his place at the table before uttering the words; When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.
Baffling.
Newmarket Celtic: Alan Reidy; Jamie Cronin, Conor Ryan, Conor McCarthy, John Hartnett; Kieran Crosby, Monty Mulqueen, Seamus Considine, Gavin O'Donnell, Ronan McCormack; Adam Gilbert. Subs: Danny Conway for McCormack, Brendan Harkin for Ryan, Oisin Cavanagh for Hartnett, Michael Crosby for Mulqueen, Callum McNamara for Crosby.
***Brendan did not have trials with Liverpool, he was on trial in Liverpool.