Tim O'Mahony switch at the heart of Newtown's comeback against Douglas — 'It's a change we have in our locker'

Newtownshandrum selector Alan O’Brien said his side’s stirring late fightback embodied the character of the group.

The Avondhu men clawed their way to a 2-16 to 0-22 draw against Douglas in Friday evening’s Co-Op SuperStores Premier SHC Group 2 opener in Ballyhooly.

Trailing by seven points with a quarter of an hour to play, Newtown looked in serious trouble, but a powerful closing spell salvaged a result O’Brien felt was ultimately fair.

Douglas were the slicker outfit for long stretches — far more efficient in front of goal and far more ruthless in their shot selection. Newtown, by contrast, were wasteful early on. O’Brien didn’t sugar-coat it.

“We were very wasteful in the first half,” he said post-match. 

“It was nine scores from 20 chances at half-time compared to 12 scores from 15 chances for Douglas. They were very efficient from play. We had chances again in the second half, but we were wayward.” 

Yet even as Douglas threatened to pull clear, O’Brien insisted Newtown never felt they were gone. What they needed was a spark — and they found it through a bold positional switch that has served them well in the past.

The move of Cormac O’Brien back to centre-back and Tim O’Mahony up to centre-forward changed the tone of the contest.

“That change definitely helped us,” he says.

“Tim was outstanding at centre-back, but we just looked for a bit more urgency up front. It’s a change we have in our locker and it has worked for us in the past. Thankfully it worked again today.

“The introduction of David O’Connor also added bite under the puckouts, giving us a foothold.

“Great credit must be given to our boys. We were under pressure, but we brought it back and we deserved a draw.” 

O’Brien, back involved this season after stepping aside last year, said the championship was always the target. The Division 2 League — where they missed out on promotion — was used to blood younger players, many of whom were central to Friday’s effort.

“We had a good share of last year’s U21 side involved,” the Newtown selector stated. 

“We got a chance to blood a lot of those lads this year in the league. We took the league fairly serious. We were depleted with numbers at the time, but it was great matches for our younger players.

“This evening we started with six or seven U21s, I think it was, which was very pleasing.” 

Newtownshandrum are looking to push on this year, having sailed close to the wind in 2025, ending up in the relegation play-off.

“We’re a proud club. We didn’t want to be in the relegation play-off. Results didn’t go our way last year, performances didn’t go our way, and we deserved to be there.

“We showed the resilience that we showed in the relegation play-off. We don't want to be going there this year.” 

Friday’s point is a start, but O’Brien knows the road ahead is steep. Sarsfields and Charleville await in the remaining group fixtures, and Newtown will need to tidy up their shooting and sharpen their efficiency.

“We’ll knuckle down,” he said. 

“We’ll try up our performance and definitely improve on our efficiency if we can.”