Leinster Senior Hurling Championship
Antrim 1-14 Galway 2-25
Saturday 18 May
Brendan McTaggart reports from Corrigan Park, Belfast
For those who weren’t in attendance at Corrigan Park and see the score line, they’ll think this was another case of Antrim coming up short. I suppose the scoreline is all that matters but it only tells half the tale of this championship match.
Leading by a point at half time, it felt like the opening ten minutes of the second half was going to be massive. It was and it was game defining. Unfortunately for those of a Saffron persuasion, it went the way of Galway via the man in black.
Ryan McGarry was red carded for a completely innocuous challenge with the second half barely three minutes old while the Tribesmen were awarded a penalty when Conor Cooney clearly went down unaided. The talented Galway forward was under pressure from the Antrim defence as he bore down on goal but there was more than a hint of good fortune at the decision to award a penalty. He dusted himself down to fire home the resulting award to give his side a five point lead and effectively turn the remainder of the second half into a non-event.
It was the harshest of harsh lessons for Darren Gleeson’s side who had performed superbly in the opening 35 minutes. Keelan Molloy, Gerard Walsh and Conall Bohill all playing starring roles while James McNaughton was at his imperious best around the middle of the park.
The Loughgiel man finished the game with eight points beside his name and went through a mountain of work. He admitted that those ten minutes after half time, “sucked the life out of us to a certain extent” but McNaughton was pleased with how his side reacted to last weeks disappointment: “Last week (against Dublin) was a disappointment. We capitulated at the end but this past week we got back to the basics and fundamentals of the game. Back to working, earning the right to hurl and work to the death.
“Teams we’re coming up against, if we work for 10 or 15 minutes, they aren’t for laying down. They’ll have their purple patch and against Dublin, we folded. That didn’t happen today.”
Antrim did take some time to get into the game but when they did, they were causing the men from the West insurmountable problems. The visitors had held an early five point led by the eighth minute thanks largely to a goal from Gavin Lee but a run of six points unanswered from McNaughton (three – 1f), Molloy (two) and Mick Bradley fired life into the Saffron challenge.
Up until that point, the Antrim challenge was stuttering with a number of wides and shots dropping short. Coming close to double digits in wide ball and half as many dropping short, a one point lead was the minimum Antrim deserved.
The Antrim goal came in the 29th minute through Bohill. McNaughton was heavily involved in the build up with Rian McMullan and while Bohill applied the finish, it was a just reward for the work he had gone through in that opening period. The Antrim lead was three points and they were playing at a level that had plenty purring with excitement in Corrigan.
As the clock ticked towards the end of the half, Niland found another gear. He fired over three points (one free) along with a score from Tom Monaghan while Gerard Walsh was finding his range for the Saffrons. Firing over a free and executing a perfectly struck side line from similar distance to that of the Wexord game to leave the half time score 1-11 to 1-10 in the Saffrons favour.
“We were in a really good position at the start of the second half,” continued McNaughton. “We put a lot of effort into the first half to be a point up and disappointed not to be more up. We passed up on a lot of chances.
“To come out in the second half and get that red card so early, a soft red card at that, it was deflating. It wasn’t the winning or losing of the game though. They took over in the second half and that’s deflating.”
The effort and desire were there from the Saffrons but the Galway middle third overran the Antrim challenge. They forced errors and punished them on numerous occasions – Joseph Cooney and Sean Linnane in particular firing over scores off the back of Antrim being in good attacking position.
The vistors attacking threat came from all over the pitch in that second half with points coming from all angles. Ryan Elliott made two if not three top drawer saves to deny Henry Shefflin’s men and Antrim within touching distance but any dangerous Antrim attacks were fleeting at best. Their first score of the second half came 17 minutes after half time, McNaughton the man again for Antrim.
While Galway weren’t exactly ruthless in front of goal, they were relentless. With eight points separating the sides with seven minutes remaining, Galway hit a further six unanswered scores to add a hint of unfair maroon coloured gloss to the scoreboard.
McNaughton’s attentions had already turned to next Sunday and a match where the Saffrons had hoped for so much more: “We have to focus our attention on Carlow now next week.
“It’s not where we wanted to be. We wanted next week to be about us progressing in the championship. But we’ll get back to the gym on Monday and pitch on Tuesday. We’ll come up with a game plan to try and get past Carlow next week.”
TEAMS
Antrim: Ryan Elliott; Conor Boyd, Niall O’Connor, Paddy Burke; Gerard Walsh, Ryan McGarry, Conall Bohill; Eoghan Campbell, Keelan Molloy; Nigel Elliott, Michael Bradley, Niall McKenna; Rian McMullan, Seaan Elliott, James McNaughton
Subs: Scott Walsh for E Campbell (24); Rory McCloskey for R McMullan (47); Conor McCann for C Bohill (50); Fred McCurry for M Bradley (55); Paul Boyle for N McKenna (65)
Scorers: J McNaughton 0-8 (4 fs); K Molloy 0-3; C Bohill 1-00; G Walsh 0-2 (1 f, 1 side line); M Bradley 0-1
Galway: Darach Fahy; Jack Grealish, Daithi Burke, Fintan Burke; Sean Linnane, Padraic Mannion, Cianan Fahy; David Burke, Ronan Glennon; Gavin Lee, Tom Monaghan, Joseph Cooney; Conor Whelan, Conor Cooney, Evan Niland
Blood Subs: Declan McLaughlin for C Whelan (37 – reversed 41); Jonathan Glynn for J Ryan (60 – not reversed)
Subs: Declan McLaughlin for E Niland (50); Adrian Tuohey for R Glennon (54); Donal O’Shea for David Burke (57); Jamie Ryan for J Cooney (57); Jason Flynn for G Lee (65)
Scorers: C Cooney 1-6 (1-00 pen, 3 f’s, 1 ’65); E Niland 0-6 (3 fs); G Lee 1-00; D O’Shea 0-2; S Linnane 0-2; T Monaghan 0-2; Daithi Burke 0-1; P Mannion 0-1; C Fahy 0-1; David Burke 0-1; J Cooney 0-1; C Whelan 0-1; J Glynn 0-1
Referee: Michael Kennedy (Tipperary)
