Allianz Football League Division 3: Antrim v Westmeath (Sunday, Corrigan Park, 1pm)
ANTRIM suffered the heaviest defeat of any teams across the National Football League last year when they were beaten 4-27 to 0-8 by Westmeath last March.
The Saffrons bid to overturn that 31-point loss when Dessie Dolan’s side come to Corrigan Park for Sunday’s rematch and it is a game that Antrim simply cannot afford to lose.
However, Paddy McBride feels last year’s game was a “freak result” and that the subsequent win over Cavan, who went on to win Division Three, proves that Antrim can compete with and beat the best teams in the division.
“I wouldn’t even consider last year’s result – it happens every so often in sport,” stated McBride.
“You can look at a premier league result – Liverpool beating Man Utd 5-1. You can get results like that and it is brutal to be on the other end of it.
“That result happened to us and we went out the next day and beat Cavan. It shows it was just a freak result.
“I’d like to think it wouldn’t happen again, especially after the two defeats we’ve just had.”
Those back-to-back defeats to Down and Sligo has left Antrim with no wriggle room. If they lose again on Sunday, they are out of the promotion race and will have a job on their hands to remain in Division Three.
“We started the League well. We played Down and we didn’t represent ourselves well at all. “Against Sligo, we’d a good first half and we made a lot of errors in the second and that led to them beating us well in the end,” added McBride.
“We need a response this weekend and I think we’ll get one. I don’t think we should be looking back at last year’s result, we should just park that and move on. It was just one of those days.
“There’s no room for error in terms of the result. The only way we can go up is to win our last three games. We have to focus on the first one and that’s on Sunday.”
This weekend will be a poignant one for McBride as the Westmeath tie falls on the one-year anniversary of the passing of his older sister Marie.
“Obviously she’ll be in my thoughts, but on Sunday I have to go out and maybe I have try and use it to work a bit harder,” added the St John’s clubman.
McBride knows Antrim need to regain momentum this weekend and keep their fate in their own hands.
They host Division Three strugglers Wicklow at Corrigan in round seven while Offaly and Limerick have also yet to pick up a point in the opening four rounds.
However, McBride doesn’t want to be relying on other results or having to beat Oisin McConville’s men on the final day to stay in the division.
“Instead of trying to look at needing to beat teams to stay up, we should be looking at it as wanting to beat teams to go up,” said McBride.
“A lot of talk after the two defeats was that we need another win to be sure of staying up.
“If that’s the mentality, then it seems like you are always targeting Wicklow.
“There are no easy games and there’s no point in looking at a game you need to win to stay up.
“There’s still a chance we can get promoted so that has to be our focus. We have to aim to win three games in-a-row and I don’t see any reason why we can’t.
“Westmeath are going strong, but Cavan were going strong last year when we beat them so we are capable of beating Westmeath.”
