Ahead of Saturday night’s Ulster SFC game against Down in Newry Antrim captain, Dermot McAleese speaks to the Saffron Gael.
Andy McEntee has kept Antrim in Division 2 for two years running and, with the amount of players Antrim were missing through injury, retaining their status was quite the achievement this season.
Vice-captain Dermot McAleese has hailed the Meath man as “brilliant” to work with and says his straight-talking approach is appreciated by the Antrim players.
The Portglenone native was speaking ahead of Saturday’s Ulster Senior Football Championship showdown with Down in Pairc Esler Newry.
“He is brilliant to work with. The thing about Andy, you know where you stand with him, there’s no backdoors with him,” stated McAleese.
“He is up front and honest with you, whether you want to hear it or not. I think as a player, you like that as you want to know where you stand.
“He is the type of manager, as long as you are putting your shoulder to the wheel and giving your best for Antrim, he’ll back you to the hilt. He has been brilliant since he has came in and you look forward to going to training.
“Even the way he likes to play football, it isn’t just sitting back and keeping the score down. It is about going and try to win the game. He has been brilliant since he has come in.”
McAleese missed a significant portion of the vital round 7 win over Oisin McConville’s Wicklow at Corrigan Park last month and was forced off after just 25 minutes.
The Saffrons held on for a three-point win to stay up and the Casement’s clubman admits it was hard to watch from the sideline after missing a large period of last season with a broken jaw.
“I tweaked my hamstring in the Wicklow game.Hopefully, it isn’t anything major, just precautionary,” added McAleese.
“I’m still hoping to be fit to play in the Down game, but I’ll have to see what the physio says and take it from there.
“I think there was only a point in it when I went off. You want to be on the pitch, pushing the thing on. We knew it was going to be a dogfight against Wicklow and that’s what it turned out to be. The goal just before half-time gave us that breathing space in the second half and we were able to control the game a bit more.
“You want to be on pitch. Obviously, over the last few years I’ve spent enough time on the sideline watching on.
“The boys finished the job brilliantly and it was a relief to stay in Division 3.”
Retaining their status in the third tier was impressive considering how many players Antrim were without throughout the season with captain Peter Healy, Ryan Murray and Conor Stewart among those still injured.
McAleese says relegation back to Division 4 would have been a body blow for the Saffrons and was relieved they saw off the challenge of Wicklow.
“It would have been a big blow. It is hard enough to get out of Division 4,” said McAleese.
“We were in it for three or four years before we got out of it. This is our third year in-a-row in Division Three with a young team. We are happy to consolidate as a Division 3 team.
“We were hoping to push on for promotion this year, but with the injuries we had and a couple of poor performances we had in the middle of the League really took the sting out of that charge.
“With the development of this team, it would have been a real kick in the teeth to be going back down a level. To stay in Division 3 was a good achievement this season.”