Antrim 1-19 Laois 1-20

Joe McDonagh Cup – Round 3 – Saturday May 19

Antrim 1-19 Laois 1-20

Brendan McTaggart reports from Pearse Park, Dunloy #TheSaffronGael

Ah if only we could have had five more minutes.  It’s all it would have taken.  Five down going into four minutes of injury time to come away from Pearse Park with a one point defeat is hard to digest.  How we could have been doing with some of that 15 minutes from last weeks’ match.

After 70 pulsating minutes, Antrim suffered their first defeat of the Joe McDonagh Cup to Laois.  A side they will be certainly glad to see the back of and it gave the Saffrons an unwanted hat-trick as Laois claimed the treble over Antrim in 2018.  Where did it all go wrong?  For their heroics of the last two outings in the competition, Antrim failed to reach the same heights, especially and crucially in the first half.  Playing with the wind, Antrim seemed flat.  Like the toll of the last two weeks had taken its toll.  The zip and aggression were missing.  That clinical edge and fluency wasn’t there when Antrim needed it.

Credit to Laois, they deserved the win and the score line probably flattered the Saffrons in the end with a late rally of 1-1 in injury time leaving Antrim within a solitary white flag.  The O’Moore County came into the match with a point to prove having suffered defeat in their opening two matches.  They played the perfect first half and although Antrim improved in the second, they were more economical and punished errors in the Saffrons defence.

Back to the first half.  Much like the play-off encounter between these two sides, Antrim’s radar was gone.  Despite a promising opening where they took an early three point lead, Antrim’s wides tally reached double figures by the short whistle as Laois took a three point lead into the break.  At the start of the game the wind felt like a seven or eight point advantage and Antrim were facing it after the restart with a deficit to make up.  It could have been worse for Antrim with corner forward Willie Dunphy incredibly fired wide from point blank range after being fed a perfect pass from Ross King late in the first half.

The restart brought signs of the Antrim we have been watching for the last three weeks.  It was going to take a super human effort for Antrim to get anything from the game at that stage but in Neil McManus the Saffrons have a man capable of the impossible.  Incredibly starting after his horror injury against Carlow, McManus fired over three quick frees from mammoth distances into the wind to breathe fresh impetus into the Antrim challenge and give hope to the support who had made their way to Pearse Park.

Those hopes were dashed soon after with one swing of Dunphy’s hurl.  Unlike Antrim in the first half, Laois were driving everything long with Enda Rowland giving an exhibition of distribution from the Laois restarts in the second half.  Antrim had abandoned their sweeper system, going man for man and trusting their own natural hurling ability in the second half and were getting rewards but Laois’ poc-out were landing regularly close to the Antrim 21 yard line and it was through a long ball that the visitors to Pearse Park scored the opening goal of the contest. As the ball broke Laois won possession and went to tap over a point to put them back ahead, but the shot came back off the upright with the sliothar dropping perfectly to Dunphy who hit an unstoppable drive that gave goalkeeper Elliott no chance.

They say hurling is all about timing and it felt like it was the perfectly timed score for Laois as they looked to stave the Saffron early charge in the second half but Antrim continued to push, continued to press and pressure Laois in ways they couldn’t reach in the first half.  That first half will haunt the players and management.

McManus continued to be machine like from placed ball while substitutes Conor McCann and James McNaughton had a huge impact from their introduction.  As the game went deep into the second half, Antrim’s energy levels began to dip with errors creeping into their game.  Silly fouls letting Laois off the hook when Antrim were having to work so increasingly hard for their own scores.  The visitors were purposeful with their ploy of isolating the Antrim full back line.  Every Enda Rowland poc out was landing strategically in front of them and Antrim tried to pull Conor McKinley deeper to fill the void.  Laois and Ben Conroy took advantage with the impressive centre half forward bagging a brace of points in as many minutes to deflate the Antrim renaissance in the 55th minute and once again open a three point advantage.

Two points separated the sides when Antrim were thrown a huge lifeline in the 63rd minute.  Nigel Elliott, so impressive in recent matches was starting to find room and show signs of the devastating speed and power he possesses and for once he got clear of the Laois defence.  Bearing down on goal and with another drop of the shoulder, the Dunloy man looked for the world like he was for finding the back of the net only to be fouled by Lee Cleere, who pulled across the Dunloy man from behind.  The crowd screamed for advantage but referee Justin Heffernan stopped play to give Cleere his marching orders.  McManus’ 11th point of the match from the resulting free left one between the sides as Antrim smelt blood, instead Laois and Ross King continued to punish Antrim with three unanswered frees and substitute Aidan Corby firing over to give the visitors a five point lead in the last minute of normal time.

Antrim began to go long in search of the goal that would revive their hopes.  In a packed Laois defence, substitute Ciaran Clarke rose highest to collect a Conor McCann delivery.  The Ballycastle man made no mistake with his strike as the sliotar rattled the back of the Laois net.

Time wasn’t Antrim’s friend though, despite Laois clearly slowing the game and making two changes in the time that remained, the referee played just one extra minute of the four allowed with James McNaughton’s late point in vein.

A defeat is always hard to take but there is much to be taken from the second half performance from Antrim.  They have two weeks to mend, recover and recuperate before traveling to Mullingar and a meeting with Westmeath with still all to play for in the Joe McDonagh Cup.

Antrim: Ryan Elliott; Stephen Rooney, John Dillon, Arron Graffin; Paddy Burke, Conor McKinley, Ryan McCambridge; Eddie McCloskey, Simon McCrory; Nigel Elliott, Conor Johnston, Neil McManus; Donal McKinley, Conor Carson, Daniel McCloskey

Subs: James McNaughton for R McCambridge (26); Conor McCann for D McCloskey (26); Neal McAuley for S Rooney (44); Ciaran Clarke for D McKinley (49)

Laois: Enda Rowalnd; Joe Phelan, Matthew Whelan, Lee Cleere; Colm Stapleton, James Ryan, Ryan Mullaney; Patrick Purcell, Cian Taylor; Charles Dwyer, Ben Conroy, Ciaran Comerford; Ross King, Neil Foyle, Willie Dunphy

Subs: Stephen Maher for J Phelan (57); Jake Creagh for R Mullaney (61); Patrick McKane for W Dunphy (66); Aidan Corby for N Foyle (inj); Eanna Lyons for C Dwyer (inj)

Scorers for Antrim: Neil McManus 0-11 (9fs 1 ’65); Conor Johnston 0-3; Ciaran Clarke 1-00; Nigel Elliott 0-1; Donal McKinley 0-1; James McNaughton 0-1; Conor McCann 0-1; Eddie McCloskey 0-1

Scorers for Laois: Ross King 0-11 (11 fs); Ben Conroy 0-4; Willie Dunphy 1-1; Patrick Purcell 0-2; Charles Dwyer 0-1; Aidan Corby 0-1

Referee: Justin Heffernan (Wexford)