Antrim 1-23 Laois 1-13:Antrim had 10 points to spare over 14-man Laois at Casement Park on Saturday to keep their All-Ireland senior hurling championship quarter-final hopes alive.
They face a huge task on Saturday - if they are to progress to the last eight must clock up a first ever Liam McCarthy Cup win over Galway.
Laois, meanwhile, will be playing for pride against Clare having lost their opening two games, although with less than two minutes played of Saturday's encounter in Belfast, Damien Fox's charges looked set to steamroll the home side.
John Brophy had notched 1-1 with just over 90 seconds gone. It was Tommy Fitzgerald, moved into full forward from the throw-in, who was causing most problems. Fitzgerald's shot was well saved by Ryan McGarry between the Antrim posts, but Brophy was on hand to fire home the rebound.
Antrim shored up their back line by adding the experienced Micky Kettle in place of Kieran Kelly who was struggling with the pace of Fitzgerald. Three Paddy McGill points brought them back into the game, although the foundations for their win were laid in a purple patch from the 18th to the 34th minutes when the home side scored 1-5 without reply to put them seven clear.
Ciarán Herron started the ball rolling with a fine score from play to level at 0-8 to 1-5 and man of the match Karl McKeegan put Antrim into the lead for the first time with his side's only goal. Neil McManus fed his Cushendall clubmate McKeegan who gave Patrick Mullaney no chance.
Ciarán Herron and McKeegan again raised white flags with Paul Shiels making space well to put Antrim six clear. McManus fluffed a great goal chance before Michael McCambridge added another point for the Saffrons.
The accurate James Young cut the deficit to five (1-12 to 1-7) at the break with two frees, and that is how the score stood when Shane Dollard was sent off just after the restart, striking McManus off the ball, warranting a straight red from Meath referee Fergus Smith.
Laois continued to battle and kept the gap to five points until the 69th minute without ever looking like winning the game. Young, as many times before, proved to be their scorer-in-chief, accounting for nine points in all, seven from frees. Matthew Whelan was the only other Laois player to score in the second half.
As the game drew to an end, Antrim began to open up the Laois defence and McManus, McKeegan, Johnny McIntosh, McGill and Michael Herron all added late points to bring the winning margin to double figures.
Antrim joint manager Terence McNaughton was pleased with the win. "We won't get carried away with this result. We are still a long way away from where we want to be and it mightn't happen this year or even next year."
ANTRIM: R McGarry; A Graffin, K Kelly (0-1), S Delargy; M McCambridge (0-1), J Campbell, Ciarán Herron (0-3); K McKeegan (1-3, 2 frees), B Herron; P McGill (0-5, 2 frees), N McManus (0-2), M Herron (0-2); K Stewart (0-2), C Duffin, P Sheils (0-2). Subs: M Kettle for K Kelly, J McIntosh (0-2) for C Duffin.
LAOIS: P Mullaney; John Walsh, C Healy, C Dunne; James Walsh, M Whelan (0-1), M McEvoy; J Fitzpatrick, S Dollard; J Brophy (1-1), J Young (0-9, 7 frees), JJ McHugh (0-1); T Fitzgerald (0-1), W Hyland, P Russell. Subs: B Fitzgerald for W Hyland, E Jackman for JJ McHugh, M Birmingham for P Russell, B McEvoy for J Fitzpatrick
Referee: F Smith (Meath)
