Leinster Senior Hurling Championship – Round 2
Antrim 2-22 Wexford 2-20
Saturday 27 April
Brendan McTaggart reports from Corrigan Park, Belfast
What a turnaround. Antrim produced one of the great displays in recent times to defeat Wexford on Saturday afternoon. A huge win against the odds, the Saffrons produced the kind of hurling we know they have in their locker and were thoroughly deserving of their win at the end of the 70 plus minutes.
It wasn’t without drama, it rarely is with the Saffrons. This game had everything with a dubious penalty, dubious square ball decisions and a super saffron comeback in the second half that had the patrons in attendance at Corrigan Park purring.
If last week was a hard watch from an Antrim perspective, no one wanted to leave Corrigan Park as those who attended basked in the glory of a quite magnificent display from Darren Gleeson’s men.
Plenty has been said in the media since the Kilkenny game and as captain Eoghan Campbell said afterwards, they were itching to get back out on the pitch to try and show that they are much better than that performance showed: “The preparation we’ve had, just didn’t show last week. Everything we wanted to do, we did the opposite. It was so flat.
“We were glad it was a six day turnaround, to get back out on the pitch. If it was two weeks, we might have overthought it. We had to park it and focus on Wexford.
“We know what we’re capable of up here. Get a few bodies right and implement our game on them. It was very evident that we did that out there today. We played how we wanted to play instead of being dictated to and that was the difference.
“There was no panicking. They got a couple of goals and there was still no panicking. We kept chipping away.”
From the first whistle, Antrim looked to have more drive and were more than a match for the visitors who overall, relied heavily on the brilliance of Lee Chin. The Wexford ace finished with 2-11 but showed some outrageous skills and ability throughout. I’ve never witnessed a player hold a man off with one arm to create room and catch a dropping ball at his ankles before. Hello Mr Chin. He did it on more than one occasion as if to show the previous was no fluke.
The first goal came from the penalty spot, referee Colm Lyons spotting an infringement as the sliotar came back off the upright and awarding the visitors the penalty. Antrim were flummoxed and Chin sent the sliotar to the back of the net.
The Saffrons had the lead reduced to the minimum with the clock ticking into first half injury time when Chin was at it again. An outrageous catch before rampaging at the Antrim defence. There was certainly a questionable number of steps taken but what couldn’t be questioned was his finish. Like a tracer bullet to the bottom right hand corner of Ryan Elliott’s goals from the more acute of angles.
A three point half time deficit was harsh on Antrim. The first half was a very even affair but as Campbell also said, they just had to stick to their game plan: “We just kept chipping away and knew that we’d get another goal chance. We threatened two or three in the first half and once it came, we just opened up. Boys started throwing them over, Keelan (Molloy), big Gerard Walsh only back and was fantastic.
“We showed serious grit and that’s what was needed today. We needed the boys to dig in and fight for each other and for the Antrim jersey.
“We got the ball in a bit quicker than last week. We probably played about with it too much when we shouldn’t have been. We knew that if we got ball into the forwards quicker then they’d do damage.”
Wexford had stretched into a seven point lead after just eight second half minutes and any Antrim fan in attendance would have been forgiven for having that sinking feeling but the ‘grit’ Campbell talked about came to the fore. A run of five unanswered scores with Conal Cunning’s frees and the brilliance of James McNaughton, Seaan Elliott and Keelan Molloy on show, they were within touching distance of Keith Rossiter’s men.
Wexford fired over a couple of quick fire scores, Chin and Conor McDonald finding their range before Antrim thought they had their first goal. Molloy’s long ball was fired towards substitute Aodhan O’Brien on the edge of the square. The Rossa man celebrated but referee Colm Lyons was blowing his whistle like he was on a Saturday night rave. After consulting with his umpires, the goal was disallowed.
That sinking feeling was turning into the feeling of another one of those days.
“We knew there was goals”, said Campbell: “we just needed one of them to drop for us. “The one that was the square ball looked to be fairly dubious from where I was but we got one soon after.
“We just kept chipping away and knew that we’d get another goal chance. We threatened two or three in the first half and once it came, we just opened up. Boys started throwing them over, Keelan (Molloy), big Gerard Walsh only back and was fantastic.”
In the final 10 minutes, Antrim outscored Wexford 2-2 to 0-2. A hat tip to the conditioning of the players and maybe the trip to Portugal wasn’t the big waste of money some had touted in the days since the Kilkenny game.
Antrim’s first major came from just downright belligerence and a sheer unwillingness to give in to Wexford pressure by James McNaughton. Winning ball from ruck, McNaughton broke and took on the Wexford defence. He had the presence of mind to pick out Niall McKenna in space and he buried to the back of Mark Fanning’s net.
The second came just three minutes later and McNaughton turned provider yet again. Taring his way through the Wexford defence, he lured the challenges one way before finding Seaan Elliott in space. The Dunloy man wasn’t making any mistake with a super strike to take his tally to 1-3 for the afternoon in what was quite possibly his best display in an Antrim shirt.
Wexford and Chin just wouldn’t go away however and the sides were tied in the last minute of the 70. Antrim looked to manoeuvre the sliotar with a side-line ball awarded. Close to the ’45 and under the west terrace at Corrigan, Gerard Walsh can’t have hit many sweeter than what he produced two minutes into injury time. He’s a quiet, unassuming genius of the game and he afforded a fist pump in celebration as he went back to his position and Corrigan erupted.
Cunning’s seventh free of the contest finished the scoring and as full time was called, the cheers of euphoria rang around the west Belfast venue. Those in purple and gold sank to their knees, those bedecked in Saffron were greeted like heroes.
Matches like these in recent past, Antrim have had the unfortunate knack of coming out in the wrong side off. This felt like a massive moment for hurling in the county. Last week was torturous, this was momentous. This was coming and the Antrim captain told us, they want more: “We stuck to the game plan. We edged ahaead and they came back at us but we worked the ball and stuck to what we wanted to do. We didn’t just lump the ball up there. It shows our own ability and it was fantastic to show that out there today.
“It’s only one win in Leinster at the end of the day, we still have a hard road to go now in two weeks time.
“Wexford and Dublin games were probably the two that we are targeting but we’ll rest now and recover. We want to put in another performance in Parnell Park in two weeks’ time.”
TEAMS
Antrim: Ryan Elliott; Paddy Burke, Ryan McGarry, Niall O’Connor; Gerard Walsh, Conor Boyd, Conal Bohill; Seaan Elliott, Eoghan Campbell; Nigel Elliott, Keelan Molloy, James McNaughton; Conal Cunning, Niall McKenna, Conor McCann
Subs: Aodhan O’Brien for C McCann (31); Cormac McKeown for N Elliott (48); Michael Bradley for N McKenna (70+3)
Scorers: C Cunning 0-7 (7 f’s); S Elliott 1-3; N McKenna 1-1; J McNaughton 0-4 (3 f’s); G Walsh 0-3; K Molloy 0-2; N Elliott 0-1; C Boyd 0-1
Wexford: Mark Fanning; Shane Reck, Conor Foley, Niall Murphy; Simon Donohue, Damien Reck, Matthew O’Hanlon; Conor Hearne, Kevin Foley; Liam Og McGovern, Lee Chin, Cathal Dunbar; Cian Byrne, Conor McDonald, Rory O’Connor
Subs: Eoin Ryan for N Murphy (55); Richie Lawlor for C Dunbar (56); Seamus Casey for C Hearne (59)
Scorers: L Chin 2-11 (1-00 pen, 0-7 f’s); C Byrne 0-4; C McDonald 0-2; R O’Connor 0-1; C Dunbar 0-1; L Og McGover 0-1
Referee: Colm Lyons (Cork)