Cookstown had a tougher day than one might have otherwise expected when they faced Newry Olympic on Saturday.
Travelling through torrential rain to the Downshire Road pitch, Cookstown were able to pick from their full deck of players for almost the first time this season.
The first ten minutes were all Cookstown. The white-shirted Tyrone men applied serious pressure on the packed Newry defence but could not find a way through until determined play by Ryan Millar saw them win a short corner. Stuart Smyth smashed home from the top of the circle.
While other teams might have wilted after this start, Newry did not and continued to trouble Cookstown with their 'long handle' tactics. Time after time the back line was forced to redeploy to deal with aerials thrown out of the Newry defence.
A mixture of poor composure and good Newry anticipation brought about a couple of chances for the home side, but Tobi Deppermann in goal was in imperious form and made a series of quality stops to keep Cookstown ahead in the game.
Additionally, Cookstown were expending a great deal of energy moving the ball out of defence and into the heavy traffic of the Newry 25' in what had become suffocating, heated and humid conditions.
Cookstown knew that they needed to lift the speed of their play and to stop running the ball into Newry's flat-bat tackles if they were to extend their lead in the second half, but it proved a difficult aim to achieve.
To make matters worse Newry got themselves level when they converted from a broken down short corner in scrappy fashion.
Greg Allen re-established Cookstown's lead - maintaining his record of scoring in every game this season - but Cookstown fingernails were well-gnawed by the final whistle as Newry forced a series of short corners in the last few minutes. A combination of Deppermann, Mark Crooks and Smyth proved equal to the challenge in defence to help Cookstown to three precious points.
Solo Fuels Man of the Match: Tobias Deppermann