28 May 2012
Clones heartbreak Monaghan 1.12, Antrim 1.9
Antrim footballers travelled to Clones yesterday, backed by a sizeable and vocal support, and gave their best Ulster Championship performance since 2009. Sadly, heartachingly, it was not enough and too many wrong decisions, by our team and by officials, towards the end of the game meant that Monaghan ran out 3 point winners.
The stats and the scorers are widely available elsewhere, suffice to say that about one minute before throw in I offered a view on Twitter that we needed a strong start. About a minute later the goal was in Chris Kerr’s net, despite the best efforts of the keeper who blocked the initial shot but was stranded for the rebound. After that Antrim settled well and Liam Bradley is not exaggerating when he says we were the better team for most of the game.
The system employed was designed to restrict Monaghan’s scoring chances and it did just that. Mark Sweeney was withdrawn into the sweeper role and he must have clocked up a half marathon distance over the 70+ minutes. It wasn’t pretty at times but it worked and Monaghan only pegged 4 points onto their goal by half time.
Antrim would ultimately be undone by a lack of scores and really in the first half we needed to post more than 5 points; too many final passes went astray and too many shots were off target. Paddy Cunningham and Michael Magill did register the best scores of the half and at the short whistle we were 2 points in arrears. The home crowd were not happy and it was the Saffrons who had the greater vocal support as they left the field.
The second half was end to end and for a magical 5 minute spell Antrim had the big momentum, with James Loughrey’s goal the highlight of a 1-3 scoring spell which put us 3 in front. Another point at that stage, or holding off Monaghan’s response, maintaining the 3 point gap for a couple of minutes……….any of these would have increased our stranglehold on the game. But Monaghan brought in Tommy Freeman, won a free from a non foul, and they were back in business.
In the end it was maybe their greater experience that told, and their ability to dig deep when faced with a real challenge was admirable.
But you get the feeling that our fellas deserved more than they got.
Yes some passes went astray and frees were missed especially late on, but this was a strong and disciplined performance from well drilled, fit and talented footballers. They gave everything in a blistering heat and can’t be faulted for effort or preparation.
The old post championship Antrim refrain applied this morning – ‘we could have won it’ – but the reason it’s a cliché is because it’s true.
We left something behind in Clones yesterday, and hopefully the bitter taste of the narrow defeat is enough to make the 2012 group of Antrim footballers thirst for a qualifier run.
They will be in action in 5 weeks time. Let’s hope the same number of supporters is back again too.
Brendan Mulgrew
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