Ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Armagh the Saffron Gael spoke with Antrim ‘veteran’ Paddy McBride who wears the Saffron jersey for the 125th time, this time on his home ground, Corrigan Park

SG- How are you feeling in the lead up to Saturday Paddy?

PMcB – “I’m feeling excited to be honest with you. I would be excited coming into any championship game, be it club or county to be honest with you, especially an Ulster Championship game, no matter who it is against. If you were to say to me who would you like to meet coming into a big game I would always say “the best there is” and it so happens this weekend Armagh are the best there is.”

SG – The whole controversy of whether the game was going to be played in Corrigan or moved somewhere else, when did that really start?

PMB – “Whenever the draws were made we just said “happy days we have got a home draw and thought nothing more about it to be honest until rumours stated to circulate about the match being fixed for Pairc Esler, but they were just rumours at training. We were always of the opinion that the game was going to be in Corrigan and when it was announced we just said, no matter what the rumours are Corrigan is where we expect to be playing this game!”

SG – The thing about it is Paddy this all seemed to come from the Ulster Council, Armagh never really seemed to have a problem with it.

PMB – “The thing is every GAA person in Ireland would feel the same way. If any other county in Ireland was faced with this scenario I would feel they had the right to have the game at home, when that was the way it was drawn. The GPA actually released a statement supporting our claim which was signed by all the team captains in Ulster so that had to include Armagh, and would have had to present that to his team before signing it. If the team that we are playing thinks the same as us it was a no brainer.”

SG – There had to be the danger of the whole thing becoming a distraction in the lead up to the game, do you think that has been the case Paddy? There was something similar when you faced Cavan a few years ago.

PMB – “Yes that is true and to be honest we let ourselves down against Cavan. Looking back at that game it was not the defeat that let us down, it was the manner of it. Looking forward to this weekend we can’t have that level of performance again. There has to be excitement in the way we play, there has to be intensity, and pace, and we need to give 100%, nothing else will be good enough.”

SG – Has everything gone well in training in the build up to the game?

PMB – “Well the big disappointment overall was getting relegated from Division 3 to be honest. Our aim coming into the season was to win promotion and when that did not happen we were gutted. We took a short break at the end of the league, just one night, before we got back to training and the first training session back was really flat. However 20 minutes into that thing suddenly began to pick up and it ended up being one of the best sessions we ever had! Since then it has been really good.”

SG –  I know that nearing the end of the league you reached 100 league game milestone, do you know how  many this will be overall on Sunday. 

PMB – I think this going to be 125.

SG – Have you any thoughts of retirement?

PMB – “No to be honest. If my legs still carry me I hope to go on as long as I can.  Anyone I have spoken to who has retired all tell me they wish they had played on for a bit longer. At the minute I feel as fast, as fit, as sharp as I have ever felt. I am 31, so Im still in my prime years”

SG – So what about Saturday’s opponents Armagh? You will have seen them play a lot over the past year. Were you in Croke Park for their final in over Galway?

PMB – “I was, and I was really happy for a lot of the boys on the team. I played with a good few of them at University and it was great to see them winning an All Ireland. I know a lot of them really well and it was great to see them achieve what they had, but at the same time there was bitter-sweet element to it all. We will friends again on Saturday before the game, and again afterwards but for the seventy odd minute in between, that won’t be the case.”

Sam Maguire made the journey from his present home in Armagh to Ballymena this week for a very special occasion – to help the All Saints club mark the start of their 50th anniversary celebrations. Formed in 1975 the Ballymena club has planned a series of events to mark the five decades since and this week’s guest appearance provided the perfect start to their programme.

Members representing the club’s various committees and teams were in attendance and photos were the order of the day for all as The Saffron Gael’s Bert Trolan patiently accommodated all. The club wishes to thank our former Orchard County native & G4MO player, Sinead Connolly, for organising the visit and looking after Sam on his travels. Thanks also to the Armagh county board for sharing a little piece of GAA royalty with the club in this, our special year.   

TO VIEW MORE OF BERT TROWLEN’S PICS FROM THE NIGHT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

https://myalbum.com/album/qCkLWakVaHq4zu

Ulster SFC Quarter-Final

Antrim v Armagh Saturday 12-30 (Corrigan Park)

Like most of you I suspect, I’m sick to the teeth of the ongoing debate about the redevelopment of Casement Park as one obstacle after another has been placed in the way of the promised new stadium.

My views on what has happened and what is likely to happen is for another day and might be better not put in print but the more recent bombshell that Antrim would have to concede home advantage to Armagh in the Ulster SFC Quarter-Final has added insult to injury.

Talk about kicking a man when he’s down! The timing of this announcement was even worse than the announcement itself. Antrim were fighting for division 3 survival when the announcement was made and it certainly proved a distraction as they lost their last two league games to suffer relegation to division 4.

To their great credit the Antrim players and management came out fighting with the announcement that if the game was not played at Corrigan they would not be playing it at all.

A standoff between the Saffrons and Ulster Council ensued as the ‘Corrigan or nowhere’ debate gathered momentum with the provincial body finally relinquishing their stance at the 11^th hour.

Corrigan Park has proved an excellent venue since the Casement Park gates were closed back in 2013. A stand and terracing has been installed at the St. John’s ground and the Whiterock Road club have done a superb job in hosting county football and hurling games there.

As the Casement Park debacle continues to drag its feet it would make a lot of sense if the powers that be would provide further funding for the up-dating of terracing and any further development that would enhance the ‘Johnnies’ ground.

Meanwhile its business as usual! Andy McEntee and his Antrim team should be applauded for their stance. It feels a little bit like the Alamo and on Saturday that courage will be needed as they welcome the All Ireland champions to West Belfast. To be fair Armagh never got involved in the argument and their manager Kieran McGeeney appeared to back the Antrim cause.

We at the Saffron Gael have supported the Antrim stance and we will be there to cover Saturday’s David v Goliath encounter.

We call on Antrim fans to get behind their team and hopefully cheer them on to what would be a historic victory.

Come on Antrim!

Dalata Hotel Group Ulster U20 Football Championship Group A,

Down 5-19 Antrim 0-21

Antrim’s involvement in the Ulster U20 Football Championship ended at Pairc Esler on Wednesday evening when they were well beaten by Down.

After getting their first point of the competition at the weekend against Fermangh there was a bit more optimism in the camp going into this game, but the Down side were dominant from the start and quite frankly the game was as good as over at half time when the home side led by 4-10 to 0-03.

Down started very strongly and had three points on the board in as many minute. Antirm had an early goal chance when JJ Higgins worked an opening but the Down netminder Ronan Burns made a good save to deny the corner forward and from then until the interval it was all one way traffic.

Man of the match Ruairi Madine had the ball in the Antrim net on 11 minutes and it wasn’t long to he raised two more green flags. Conhuir Johnston got Antirm on the scoreboard on eighteen minutes but it was merely token resistance as the home teams sent over scores from everywhere and Madine set up Lorcan Ward for a fourth goal before the break, while Tarlach Enright and Rory McErlean got Antrim’s other scores, as the Mourne men pushed on to lead by 19 points at the interval. (4-10 to 0-03)

Antrim showed a little better in the second half and actually hit five two-pointers during that period through McKenna, Adams, Johnston and Enright, but Down were home and hosed by this stage as they ended thirteen clear at the final whistle.

Wednesday evening sees the final games in the group when Antrim travel to Tyrone while Down take on Fermanagh.

Down R Burns 0-1 (45); B Christie, L Vaughan, L Lynch; D Murdock 0-1, J McFerran, C Morgan; D McKernan, D McAleenan 0-2; E Murray 0-2, L Ward 1-2, E Travers 0-1; B McEvoy 0-1, R Madine 3-4, O Byrne 0-4 (0-1f)

Subs L Quinn for Murdock (ht), C McGinley 0-1 for McEvoy (41), C Clerkin for Ward (41), R Magorrian for Madine (44), C Ward 1-0 for Travers (49)

Antrim J McLaughlin; S Doyle, D McGurk, C Hale; R Quinn, P Duffin, E Walsh 0-1; N Hynds, S Ferris; C Walsh, T Enright 0-4 (0-1f, 1×45, 1tpf), R McErlean 0-1; JJ Higgins, C Johnston 0-6 (0-3f, 1tpf), L Phillips

Subs M McKenna 0-5 (2tp) for Hynds (h-t), S Adams 0-2 (1tp), for Ferris (h-t), D Martin for Higgins (h-t), O McKenna for Phillips (39), S Boyd 0-1 for McErlean (44)

Referee Niall McKenna (Monaghan)