Allianz National Hurling League – Division 1B

Antrim 1-19 Dublin 1-20

Lady luck and all her daughters turned their backs on Antrim at Corrigan Park on Sunday as the Saffrons lost out to Dublin in the cruellest of fashion in their National Hurling League Division 1b game.

Ryan McGarry who gave a man of the match performance at centre back for Antrim

Antrim were doing well and appeared well set to record their first home win over the Dubs in 17 years. Despite squandering a series of chances the home side led the visitors by a point entering injury time when a shot from Dublin’s Sean Gallagher dropped into the ‘square’ around the height of the crossbar. Antrim goalkeeper Tiarnan Smyth got his hand to the ball and it dropped down in front of him, but in his efforts to lift and clear the Sliothar he missed the roll lift and in an effort to recover the situation the ball rolled over the line for the goal that gave Dublin victory.

A bad blow to the home team, but an even worse one for Smyth, who was shattered afterwards, probably feeling he had let his team mates down. However the Ballycastle man need not beat himself up about it for he played well throughout the game, and actually saved a Dublin  ‘point’ that was going over the bar during the first half. There were plenty of his outfield colleagues who made a load of mistakes during the game, but there’s will not be remembered, despite also playing well, but such is the life of a goalkeeper.

Actually the home side should have been well clear of the danger at that stages as they created a series of scoring chances, in the final quarter, but most of them finished wide of the target as the Saffron’s terrible record against the men in blue continued.

Niall McKenna sends over and Antrim point

Even after Smyth’s mistake there was still time to salvage the situation as the fourth official signalled three minutes of additional time. However most of it was wasted after a Dublin physio came on the field to attended to an injured player, before kicking the ball away on the way off, hence disrupting the game even more. The clock was ticking away for almost three minutes during this incident, which should have been added on to the prescribed three indicated, and when substitute Aaron Bradley sent over a point to cut the gap back to the minimum, the Antrim players felt they could still salvage something from the game. It was not to be as match referee Cayman Flynn, who incidentally had a very good game overall, allowed just an extra one minute and blew the final whistle on the puc-out.

It was a hard blow to take for the Antrim players who trooped from the pitch crestfallen at the end, but when the look at the overall picture they can take great heart in their performance. Everyone gave 100% during the seventy odd minutes and a few in particular really stood out with Smyth, Paddy Burke, Scott Walsh, Eoghan Campbell Conal Cunning and man of the match Ryan McGarry excelling against a good Dublin outfit. They recovered from a slow start, got back in the game before falling two points behind at half time. They came out strongly in the second half and their noses in from after ten minutes and were never headed again until the unfortunate incident in injury time.

With the swirling breeze behind them in the first half Dublin were off their marks much quicker and after centre forward Colin Currie pointed them into a lead from a free within the opening minute.

The visitors had a wider spread of scorers and they went 0-3 to 0-0 ahead before Conal Cunning opened the Antrim account with a pointed free from distance. That score helped settled them and they began to play with a bit of confidence. Niall McKenna, who had his best game in the Saffron shirt for a long time, got their first from play and the fare was good as both teams picked off impressive scores as they drew level at seven points apiece.

Dublin pushed on again with three on the bounce but the game really caught fire when man of the match Ryan McGarry sent a long deliver to his Dunloy clubmate Conal Cunning who rose high to win possession before breaking through to fire home the first goal of the game and tie the scores once again. Dublin though had a great ability to react quickly to the danger and led by their brilliant midfielder Brian Hayes they kicked on again to lead by 0-13 to 1-8 at the half time whistle.

Conor Burke added to the lead after the restart but wind assisted Antrim began to take control and three points from ‘Coby’ Cunning and another from Scott Walsh put them in front for the first time.

The Dubs hit three in a row to level, but the men in Saffron pushed on again with Fred McCurry and 18 year old debutant Joseph McLaughlin sending over excellent points. McLaughlin had a great chance to put the home side in control of the game when he won possession close to goal but his well struck shot was just inches wide of the upright and to compound things Cunning showed he was human after all when sent a simple free to the left of the goal from the edge of the D.

Dublin got it back to a single point but Antrim still looked firm favourites to seal the points until Smyth’s fumble. Aaron Bradley pulled one back for Antrim in added time and there was renewed hope, but the antics on the sideline in front of the stand had eaten up the time.

Scorers – Dublin: C O’Sullivan 0-5 (3f); T Smyth (OG) 1-0; B Hayes, C Currie (3f) 0-3 each; F Whitely, C Burke 0-2 each; C Donohoe, S Currie, D Ó Dúlaing, R Smith, P Crummey 0-1 each. Antrim: C Cunning 1-10 (0-6f, 0-1 65); S Walsh 0-2; N McKenna, P Burke, E Campbell, R McMullan, F McCurry, J McLaughlin, A Bradley 0-1 each.

Dublin: S Brennan 7; R Smith 7, P Smyth 7, J Bellew 7; D Power 6, C Donohoe 7, D Gray 7; C Burke 8, B Hayes 8; F Whitely 7, C Currie 7, S Currie 7; D Ó Dúlaing 6, C O’Sullivan 7, P Crummey 7. Subs: D Purcell 7 for C Currie (44), S Gallagher 7 for D Power (44), L Murphy 6 for D Ó Dúlaing (57), J Malone 6 for P Crummey (66).

Antrim: T Smyth 6; S Rooney 7, R McCloskey 7, P Burke 7; C Boyd 7, R McGarry 9, S Walsh 8; E Campbell 8, N O’Connor 8; R McMullan 6, A O’Brien 6, N McKenna 7; C Cunning 9, J McLaughlin 7, F McCurry 7. Subs: R McAteer 7 for R McMullan (61), P Duffin 6 for S Rooney (64), A Bradley 7 for J McLaughlin (68), C McGarry 7 for A O’Brien (70+2).

Ref: C Flynn (Westmeath)