Allianz Football League Division 3: 

Clare v Antrim –

Saturday, Cusack Park Ennis 3.30pm

They say League tables don’t lie and, with two games remaining, Antrim are closer to the bottom of the Division Three standing than they are to the top. 

Things looked so much more promising for the Saffrons as they opened the League with back-to-back wins over Limerick and Offaly. 

However, a hat-trick of defeats to Down, Sligo and, most recently, Westmeath put paid to their hopes of promotion. 

Now, the focus is on claiming one more point from their last two games to avoid relegation to the bottom tier. 

Eunan Walsh admits Antrim’s loss of form is disappointing, but knows they haven’t time to feel sorry for themselves ahead of a tough trip to promotion hopefuls Clare this weekend. 

“Yeah it is disappointing. After the first two games, going into the Down game, it looked as though we’d be looking at the other end of the table,” said Walsh. 

“It just shows how difficult this division is. 

“A couple of defeats can set you back. We would have had aspirations of challenging for promotion this year. Even going into the Westmeath game, if we won that, we still had a chance of promotion as Down still have to play Westmeath and Clare. 

“We have to keep going and, hopefully, we can win these last two games and look forward to the Championship

“Anything can happen in the League. We want to avoid needing a win in the last game as Wicklow could need a result against us. We don’t want to need a point in the last game. You want to leave yourself as little stress as possible.”

He added: “A result at the weekend would be huge. Clare are very good at home. I know they’ve lost a lot of players from last year, but they are still very hard to beat.

“They are coming out on the right side of results and it will be a tough place to go.”

While a third successive loss to Westmeath in round five ended Antrim’s promotion hopes, Walsh believes the four-point reversal at Corrigan Park was their best performance of the campaign. 

“There were loads of positives from the Westmeath game – we felt that was our best performance of the season,” said Walsh. 

“It just wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard. When we went back and looked at it, we could have easily scored 3-13 or 3-14. At this level, that would win any game. 

“It was just the end product that let us down, myself included. I’d a goal chance early on and we’d a few other goal chances. At this level, those chances cost you. 

“We are going in the right direction – it is just about putting everything together.”

Antrim remain without Peter Healy, Adam Loughran, Ruairi McCann (Aghagallon), Conor Stewart, Paddy Finnegan and Ryan Murray, but Eoghan McCabe has returned to training and could return to the squad for Saturday’s trip to Ennis.

One more point will be enough for Antrim and they wouldn’t want to be relying on results elsewhere ahead of their round seven clash with Wicklow at home.

Clare are still in the hunt for promotion and face Down in their final game so they need at least a point to keep up with the Mourne men and Westmeath.