24 June 2009
Antrim PRO calls for more support for Senior Footballers.
It has been a very long time a coming but Antrim Senior Football is 'NEWS' and there truly is an air of expectancy, in regard to yet another positive outcome from their impending encounter with Cavan. Clones is the place to be on Saturday evening. What has been achieved by the County, in the space one season, is truly remarkable. Having bottomed out in 2008, fragmented and all but bereft of any hope, those who remained faithful, along with those who voluntarily stepped forward to wear the saffron in 2009, have simply excelled under the leadership of Liam Bradley.
Every man in the Antrim team, who will run out on to the pitch to do battle with Cavan on Saturday night, will have fire in his belly and a hunger to match. Every reserve player behind him will also be fired up to make sure that there is to be no room for slippage; this has been and is a year of focus , upon real team / panel effort. There are star players in plenty on this panel, as again there are those who have adapted a mindset to overcome any and all obstacles, to do what it takes to achieve honour on the field.
This is a new dawning for Antrim Senior Football. Yes, there will always be some who will look at events differently, if only to find fault, be twisted and accentuate the negatives; what a miserable way to live out the gift of life. By contrast those who looked forward and upwards have had their reward already and enjoyed one great season of senior football. This one should be close to a fifty / fifty call for once, and, it would be a fitting reward if Antrim defenders were to close down the Cavan fire power, whilst urging our mid field to claim ball and duly feed our own ever hungry forwards.
This encounter has all the hallmarks of a great game. Antrim are both hungry and up for it. They have worked really hard for this day; they deserve a victory and all things being equal they will not be robbed of it. What would put the cream on the cake would be a record number of supporters, begrudger’s and all, to make the effort to get to Clones for the game. What would the atmosphere not be like, to once again have Antrim in an Ulster Senior Football Final? Drunk on adrenalin and hoarse to Wednesday at least, I would think! Make that big effort to go – you may well live to regret it if you don’t.
Lawrence Smyth Antrim PRO…
