25 May 2011
In between training sessions and gym visits Antrim’s Neil McManus took a few minutes to give the Antrim website an insight into preparations for the county’s Leinster hurling quarter final preparations ahead of Sunday’s clash with Wexford. But first we asked him to look back at the win over Laois, the Saffrons first in Leinster since entering the competition two years and three seasons ago.
“To be honest we went down to Laois expecting to win. Don’t get me wrong, it was always going to be close and had we lost most people would probably not have been surprised. But among ourselves we expected to win and I think we may have been slight favourites overall.”
Neil is modest about his own 10 point haul that day. “8 of them were frees and I happen to be hitting the frees at the moment. There are three of four fellas in the team that are as good as anyone at hitting the frees, it is just me at the moment. So the important thing overall was the win, not any individual performances.”
“This weekend all of the pressure is on Wexford. It’s a nice position for us to be in, we are heading down there and most people probably don’t even give us a chance. If Wexford win people might say, ‘no big deal’ whereas if we win it will be big news. We are aiming to make big news.”
Antrim have met Wexford a few times lately in the league and we have come out on the right side of the results in a couple of those encounters. Neil recalls two victories over the Slaneysiders and one defeat. “We know them alright and my own record is two wins out of three. I hope I can keep up that average on Sunday! They have had a good year in Division 1, any team that stays up has done well. We will certainly respect Wexford and we accept they currently play at a higher level than us, but when the game starts we will be getting stuck right in.”
Just the right attitude. Antrim travel with more than a little hope this weekend.
Brendan Mulgrew
