After Sunday’s implosion at O’Connor Park Antrim are left with little room for error as Division 3 basement side, Leitrim visit Corrigan Park on Saturday.
In what was always going to be a difficult campaign, Antrim got off to a great start when they defeated a fancied Clare at Saturday’s venue.
They were hoping to carry that good form into their second game when they travelled to play Fermanagh in Round 2 in Ederney but despite a descent performance they lost by the minimum to the Lake siders.
A win against Mickey Harte’s high flying Offaly last Sunday would have kept their promotion hopes alive and that win looked very much on the cards as they finished the opening half on the ascendancy to trail by two at the interval.
The wheels came off the wagon however at the start of the second half when the Saffrons had two players Red carded in the opening seven minutes and despite a brave battling performance by the ‘13’ Offaly pulled away to win comfortably in the end.
Both Conor Stewart and Conor Hand look likely to miss Saturday’s must win encounter with Leitrim as the road narrows and Division 3 survival becomes the immediate concern.
In such a competitive division the goal posts can move from week to week and a couple of wins coupled with results going Antrim’s way elsewhere could change all that but getting points on board will be Andy McEntee’s main concern for now.
With Antrim’s regular mid-field looking likely to miss the Leitrim visit Antrim will have to reshuffle the pack with Marc Jordan and Fionn Nagle possibly moving out the field to take up the slack.
Joe Finnegan limped out of the Offaly clash and is another concern while Kavan Keenan missed the Offaly game through injury and is unlikely to be ready for Saturday.
Ryan Murray got some game time at O’Connor Park and is likely to start if declared fit while James McDonnell and James McAuley were given first starts in Tullamore.
Patrick Ferris replaced Finnegan with John Morgan and Callum Higgins seeing some game time at O’Connor Park and will all be looking to get the nod on Saturday but at the time of writing no team had been announced.
Leitrim have made a poor start to their division 3 campaign, losing heavily to Clare, Laois and Kildare but may see their visit to Belfast as an opportunity to arrest their dreadful start to this year’s campaign.
Despite the enforced changes that Antrim will have to make I believe the Saffrons will have enough at their disposal to put their last two defeats behind them to move onto four points and push Leitrim into deeper trouble.
