NFL Division 4

Antrim v Carlow

Portglenone 2-00pm

Antrim get their National Football League campaign underway this Sunday when they face Carlow in Portglenone at 2-00pm and it looks like a stiff opening day’s challenge for Mark Doran’s side.

The Saul native has only been in charge of the Saffrons since the start of the season following the resignation of Andy McEntee following a poor division 3 campaign that saw Antrim relegated to division 4.

In a season where the highlight for Andy McEntee’s Antrim was a great first half in their Ulster Championship game against Armagh when the Saffrons led at half time at Corrigan Park before going down 1-34 to 1-23 in a truly enthralling contest.

The build up to that game and Antrim’s ‘Casement or Nowhere’ campaign, on reflection may well have proved a distraction to McEntee’s side and they took a heavy hammering away to Wexford in the preliminary round of the Tailteann Cup.

Their opponents on Sunday, Carlow changed manager mid-season when Shane Curran was replaced by Joe Murphy and the Leinster side showed marked improvement late in the season which included a shock Tailteann Cup win away to Fermanagh.

Mickey Bramwick scored 1-12 against division 3 side Fermanagh in that game and with Sean Murphy and Ross Dunphy have players who can cause Antrim problems.

They have started the season well with victory in the O’Byrne Shield with wins over Laois, Wexford and Wicklow in the final so they will be travelling North in confident mood.

When I spoke to Mark Doran during the week he told me “I’ve been to watch them twice over the last few weeks. A big strong team and have a lot of pace up front with a lot of very good players.  Sean Murphy, Mickey Bramwick, Ross Dunphy. If you look at their results they are scoring very heavily”. 

Meantime Antrim have been competing in the McKenna Cup and have had two difficult outings against Derry and eventual winners, Donegal.

In both games the Saffrons showed plenty of promise in the opening half but faded against stronger opposition but will surely have benefited from these two difficult contests.

At the time of writing there had been no Antrim team announced but John McNabb is likely to start in goals after finally throwing his hat into the Antrim ring and the big Cargin stopper has carried his excellent club form into his county outings.

Antrim are likely to be without Peter Healey, Ryan Murray, Jimmy Gribbin, Adam Loughran, Colm McGirr and Conor Hand through injury but it is hoped that Paddy McAleer will be available to add experience to the Antrim cause.

Kevin McCann from St. Ergnat’s has had two solid performances in the McKenna Cup and with Ronan Quinn, Ruairi Hagan, Sean O’Neill, Tiernan McCormick, Tom McFerran and Tom Shivers will be amongst the new faces hoping to get the nod.

The return of Pat Shivers has added height and physicality to the Antrim attack while Paddy McBride, the Finnegan’s, Joe and Patrick, Marc Jordan, Kavan Keenan, Eoghan McCabe, John Carron, Kevin Small, Conor Small, Ryan McQuillan and host clubs Ruairi Hagan and Oisin Doherty will all be challenging for a starting place.

The weather forecast over the next few days isn’t great so playing conditions could be less than ideal and it could be a matter of digging deep but Antrim have the players to get their National League campaign of to a winning start.