The Antrim team to play Laois tonight (Saturday) in Portlaoise has been announced with Patrick Finnegan the only change from the side who defeated Leitrim last Saturday at Corrigan Park

NFL Division 3

Laois v Antrim

Portlaoise- Saturday – 5.00pm

Antrim travel to Portlaoise on Saturday evening to face a Laois team who have been performing well this season and who proved too good for Andy McEntee’s Saffrons in the 2024 Tailteann Cup semi-final in Croke Park.

The sides last met in the league at Saturday’s venue back in 2022 and on that occasion a late Ryan Murray point earned Antrim a deserved share of the spoils and hopefully they can go one better at O’Moore Park on Saturday evening.

The Antrim team has undergone a lot of changes since that day back in February 2022 but Murray is one of the men still remaining. The Lamh Dhearg man has returned recently from a long term injury and is building his way back to full fitness and could be in line for a starting place.

Dermott McAleese was another who took part in that encounter back in 2022 and captains the side this year while Marc Jordan continues at the heart of the Antrim engine room and was excellent last week against Leitrim.

Despite losing to Fermanagh and Offaly, Antrim travel to Portlaoise on equal point to their hosts having recorded wins over Clare and Leitrim and a win for either side would see them handily placed for a push for promotion with two rounds remaining after Saturday’s fixture.

Antrim have been in decent form to date and that win over Clare at Corrigan on day one gave them a great start. They looked on their way to a second win away to Fermanagh but were eventually beaten by a point and the Antrim management will feel that that was one that got away from them.  

The harsh dismissal of Conor Stewart, two minutes into the second half in Tullamore proved a major blow at a time when Antrim had finished the first half strongly to put themselves back into contention and when his mid-field partner, Conor Hand suffered a similar fate the wheels came off the wagon.

Last week’s comprehensive win over lowly Leitrim looks to have got Antrim back on track with Marc Jordan moving back to mid-field to be partnered by Eunan Quinn and dominating in that sector.

Indeed the Leitrim game marked the return of a number of players for the first time this year with Eogan McCabe and Niall Burns making a healthy contribution while Jack Leneghan had solid debut at centre half and Eunan Quinn getting through a lot of work at mid-field.

Conhuir Johnston was another to get some game time and looked dangerous when he was introduced, scoring a point and unlucky not to get a goal so the panel looks strong and will provide Andy McEntee with a welcome selection dilemma.

Laois will go into Saturday evening’s game smarting from a heavy defeat last weekend to Kildare where they were beaten by 12 points to the high flying Lily Whites.

Antrim shouldn’t read too much into that result however as Kildare have handed out similar defeats to all they have met this year and look certain to top the division.

Laois’ other defeat came at the hands of Offaly back on the 2^nd February when they lost to Mickey Harte’s side by 5 points while their two win came against Leitrim and Sligo.

The Laois footballers picked up their second win of this season’s NFL Division 3 after a hugely impressive first-half performance back on the 16^th February.

 Having lost to Offaly in their first outing and then blowing Leitrim away this, it was felt would provide a better barometer of where they stood.

Laois started like a train and they were 0-7 to 0-1 up after a quarter of an hour and it was 0-14 to 0-4 by half time.

In all they had nine different scorers in the first half. Mark Barry was Sligo’s chief tormentor with five points while James Kelly kicked a two-pointer and Damon Larkin, Danny O’Reilly, Padraig Kirwan, Kevin Swayne, Killian Roche, Brian Byrne and Ben Dempsey all pointed from play.

As the second half got underway, Sligo did up their performance for spells and four two-point scores – where Niall Murphy and Alan McLoughlin were impressive – helped close the gap. But Laois always had a response.

Ben Barry kicked 0-11 against Sligo and with O’Reilly, Kirwan, Swane, Roche and Byrne carry the Laois threat on Saturday evening but Antrim with Eunan Walsh, Marc Jordan, Paddy McBride, Fionn Nagle, Ruairi McCann, Ryan Murray and the returning Conor Stewart all in good form this season, can gain a vital win.

February 26, 2022 by thesaffrongael

NFL Division 3

Antrim travel to Portlaois on Saturday hoping to build on last week’s win over Leitrim and keep their promotion hopes alive.

The Saffrons started this year’s league campaign with a win over Clare but lost narrowly on day two when they travelled to Ederney to face Fermanagh.

A heavy defeat in Tullamore to Offaly put the Saffrons in further trouble but they got themselves back on winning form when Leitrim visited Corrigan last weekend and a win in Portlaois would keep them in touch with the chasing promotion pack.

The sides last met at Saturday’s venue on the 26^th of February in 2022 when a late point from Ryan Murray secured Antrim a deserved draw and hopefully they can surpass that performance on Saturday night.

NFL Division 3

Laois 1-8 Antrim 1-8

A point with the last kick of the game by Antrim travel to O’Moore Park ion Portlaois on Saturday evening Ryan Murray earned the Saffrons a draw in Saturday night’s Division 3 clash with Laois at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise. When Laois debutant Matthew Byron put his team in front deep in second half injury time it appeared that all the Antrim effort was going to go unrewarded, but the Saffron’s worked the ball up field from Oisin Kerr’s kick-out and Murray finished with a great score, under very difficult conditions to earn his team what could be a vital point in the Division 3 promotion race.

When they turned around to face the gale force wind in the second half, with just a two point cushion, it was clear Antrim had a mountain to climb. When Laois drew level inside eight second half minutes things looked grim for Enda McGinley’s men, and when the home side edged ahead five minutes later that mountain now looked like Everest. However they showed great fighting spirit to keep themselves in contention.

Their efforts were rewarded when Mick McCann broke through from midfield to send over the equalising point, but with fifteen minutes still to play at this stage, the chances of holding on appeared remote. They did really well to stay on terms as the game entered injury time and when goalkeeper, Matthew Byron put the O’Moore County back ahead the home fans were ecstatic. It was a real kick in the teeth for the Saffrons, but when the chips were down they dug deep again and Ryan Murray silenced the home fans with a great score, one that made that 200 mile journey home a little bit easier for the Antrim fans.

Odhran Eastwood got Antrim off to a good start when he pointed inside the first minute, but Gary Walsh had the home team back on terms a minute later when he sent over a point from a free. As both team’s battled with the conditons Antrim had a good spell and hit four scores on the trot to put themselves in a good position.  Paddy McAleer started it with a great point from distance and minutes later Odhran Eastwood found room on the edge of the square and finished brilliantly to the net.

Jamie Gribbin increased the Antrim lead to five when he split the Laois posts on twenty minutes and things looked really good for the Saffrons when Ruairi McCann picked off a point to put six between the sides on 21 minutes.

Things looked really good for Antrim at this stage, but the game took a dramatic turn when Laois responded with two points from frees by Mark Barry and Gary Walsh, and when a high free by Walsh hung up in the wind on the edge of the square, full forward Evan O’Carroll rose to flick the ball to the Antrim net to cut the gap to a single point.

Full forward Ruairi McCann responded well with a point on the 30^th minute to put two between the sides, but Antrim received another blow soon afterwards when full back Ricky Johnston received a black card and at half time they lead by just two points (1-6 to 1-4) a lead which at the time didn’t appear to be anywhere near enough.

That second half was traumatic as they battled against the odds, but their grit and determination, and a touch of class from Ryan Murray, sent them home with a share of the spoils.

Odhran Eastwood (1-1), Ryan Murray (0-2), Ruairi McCann (0-2), Paddy McAleer (0-1), Jamie Gribbin (0-1), and Mick McCann (0-1) were the scorers for Antrim.

Evan O’Carroll (1-0), Gary Walsh (4 frees), Mark Barry (0-2), Eoin Lowry (0-1) and Matthew Byron (0-1) were Laois’s scorers.

NFL Division 3

Antrim v Leitrim

Saturday-Corrigan Park 2-30pm

 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.