06 February 2012
So the dust has settled on last weekend’s opening win over Sligo, and minds are beginning to concentrate on footballer’s next opponents, Tipperary.
The one point win on Saturday was a welcome one in many ways, not least because, as manager Liam Bradley said before the game, a home win was absolutely vital if we are to push for promotion. It was not a perfect performance – not by a long stretch – and to be fair nobody is claiming it was. There were too many mistakes made in possession, too many passes which went astray, too many examples of poor decision making in the final third of the field. But the way in which the team came back at Sligo, having been 3 points down, showed real determination aligned with ambition.
Bradley said today the performance was ‘average’. “We’re glad to get the win, there were plenty of times in the second half when we thought the game was going away from us so the way the lads dug in was pleasing. It was a great final quarter, there was plenty of passion on display and we’ll take encouragement from that into the rest of our Division 3 games. But there is no denying that it was no more than an average performance overall – we know, and the lads themselves know, that there is work to do in every area of the pitch. By half time we should have been further ahead and the way we started the second half just wasn’t good enough. But we know that, we will learn from that, and we will look to build on the win.”
As the cheers died down on Saturday thoughts turned to Tipperary, and an unhappy memory of our last league encounter. In 2008 Antrim needed one point from our last two Division 4 games against Tipperary and Waterford in order to be sure of promotion. Tipperary had lost their previous match by 5 points to Carlow which apparently blew their promotion chances. On the day though they out up a spirited performance and with Andy McClean red carded, Tipp won by 3 points.
This is a different Tipperary team and they, like Antrim, have recently been in Division 2. They will be determined to record their first league win having lost away to Longford at the weekend. There will be nothing easy will be taken home from Tipperary.
