26 April 2009
Antrim - v - Sligo
Disappointment in Longford, yes unfortunately, but an inglorious end to the 2009 league it was certainly not. Antrim had their chances today, in another bruising encounter with Sligo, who were clearly determined to avenge their recent league defeat in Casement.
Within 15 seconds from the throw in, Sligo had put down their marker, sending the ball over the bar for the first score of the match; it became immediately clear that Sligo were fired up and meant business. Antrim defense were none surprised; they were on guard and resilient, expecting no less and very soon the saffron’s responded in kind.
Points came slowly and steadily for a time, in an evenly matched exchange, until an early goal from Sligo rocked Antrim. Yet again they reacted, both instinctively and swiftly, to respond in kind with an answering goal from Ciaran Close. For a moment danger was seemingly averted. Antrim responded to pressure with pressure and progressed steadily, albeit with all too many unforced errors, to a point where they were four points ahead, before another determined and sustained onslaught from Sligo brought the team’s level, at 1 goal and 6 points at the half time interval.
Sligo came out again with all guns blazing and continued in the ascendency, where they had left off; scoring a total of eight points without reply. Antrim backs held their line on many occasions and defended with gutsy determination, against some concentrated attacks. Sligo left corner forward, Adrian Marren, was the Sligo man in form and doing most of the damage to Antrim; he managed to fire over five points in total.
By contrast, Antrim forwards were not sharp today. They just did not have a good day out, certainly not by comparison to some of their earlier displays. There were also a number of handling mistakes and these are invariably punished. Antrim rallied and managed to score a further 4 points, to bring the sides level at 1 g 10 pts at virtually the end of the game; virtually, because the game was scrappy at times and Sligo had one player red-carded, in consequence of a striking injury to Tony Scullion, which took him out of the game and left him with a broken nose.
A total of 4 minutes were added on and Sligo managed to score twice more to win by two points at 1g 12 pts, to bring a disappointing game to a close. Sligo had their revenge; Antrim suffered their first defeat in nine matches. The ending was not the one which Antrim were hoping for but it does not take away from the fact that this has been the best league performance for Antrim in many years and the goal of promotion to division 3 has now been achieved.
Championship is only around the corner and after a few days break the Antrim Panel will again settle down to the challenge of making marked progress within Ulster. They will again be given a goal and will embark upon a vigorous and testing programme of training, with the determinationto once again put down their marker. We all owe a depth of grattitude and appreciation to everyone associated with this first progressive step in a very long time.
Scorers: Ciaran Close 1 goal, Paddy Cunningham 5 point’s from frees, Thomas Mc Cann two points from play, James Loughrey 2 points from play, Michael Mc Cann 1 point from play.
