24 January 2010
Antrim’s opening game of the new season ended in defeat at Belfield, Dublin on Sunday when they were comprehensively beaten by UCD in the opening round of the Walsh Cup.
Behind from the thirtieth second of the game, when the home team took advantage of defensive blunder for Liam Ryan to fire home a goal, Antrim struggled to keep pace with the students for whom former Kilkenny minor star Maurice Nolan was outstanding.
Antrim did get back into the game when PJ O’Connell grabbed two goals and Karl McKeegan got a third direct from an eighty metre free, but they still trailed by six at the break on a scoreline of UCD 3-10 Antrim 3-4.
Antrim made a promising start to the second-half and two good points from Neill McManus cut the gap back to four, but that was as close as they were to get as UCD regained complete control. Nolan was unstoppable on the ‘40’ for the students and added a succession of excellent scores from played balls and from open play to see his team safely through to the next round by a fourteen point margin.
Antrim certainly have work to do as the start of the National League approaches, but no doubt Dinny Cahill and his backroom team team will tighten things up before the opening game against Carlow in four weeks time.
Scorers -- UCD: M Nolan 0-11 (0-9f), P Atkinson 2-2, L Ryan, C Lyng 1-2 each, D O'Connor 0-3, J Boland 0-1.
Antrim: PJ O'Connell 2-1, K McKeegan 1-1 (1-0 f, '65'), N McManus 0-4 (0-3f), P McGill, M Scullion, S McRory, J McIntosh 0-1 each.
UCD -- M O'Sullivan; E O'Shea, S Cummins, O Gough; D Lyng, D Kenny, D Langton; J Boland, N Prendergast; D O'Connor, M Nolan, L Ryan; D O'Callaghan, P Atkinson, C Lyng. Subs: C Gleeson for Langton (15), J Maher for Boland (61), P Burns for Gough (66), R O'Loughlin for Ryan (67), J Foley for O'Connor (70).
Antrim -- R McGarry; M Devlin, N McAuley, A Graffin; T McCann, K McKeegan, B McFall; P McGill, M Scullion; S McCrory, N McManus, PJ O'Connell; S McNaughton, J McIntosh, D Hamill. Subs: R Donnelly for McGill (44), E McCloskey for Devlin (57).
Ref -- Joe O'Kelly (Wexford).
