ALL-IRELAND QUALIFIER PHASE ONE Galway 6-20 Antrim 1-10:GALWAY TOOK to the air for their visit to Belfast on Saturday and then flew through a one-sided, no-contest All-Ireland qualifier against a deflated Antrim at Casement Park.
Ger Loughnane's charges stormed to a massive victory, and while pleased with the victory, the Clareman was understandably sympathetic toward the vanquished.
"We didn't come up here to humiliate Antrim," stressed Loughnane. "We just came here to win. It was our first match for many weeks and you always have the fear that you might be caught with a sucker punch from the likes of Antrim."
Naturally the mood among the Antrim team and mentors was seriously downbeat. It's fair to say that Sambo McNaughton and Dominic McKinley, the joint managers, were somewhat shellshocked by the scale of the whitewashing.
"I just cannot understand it," reflected McNaughton. "We work as hard as any other team in preparation. We had Joe Kernan here and he was telling the players the same things as we tell them.
"I've said it in the past and got stick for saying it, but I still believe that we will never progress until we are included in the Leinster Championship."
McKinley added, "We have now to try and get off our knees and prepare to meet Waterford next Saturday. I thought we could make a game of it when we drew level."
Loughnane had to be particularly happy with the championship debut of Joe Canning.
The strapping youngster lined out at number 15 but roved all over the attack, finishing with a tally of 2-6, of which 1-2 came from placed balls. He also laid on an early-second-half goal for Damien Hayes and netted the goal of the game himself.
Antrim, without their injured full back Neil McGarry and centre forward Liam Watson, who is out of the panel for disciplinary reasons, tried various ploys to stem the tide. But the Antrim defence was under constant pressure, even from the huge puck-outs of James Skehill.
Donal McNaughton gave Antrim the lead after two minutes from a free but six unanswered points, four of them from Canning, for Galway set the trend.
After 17 minutes, Galway led 0-10 to 0-4 before Antrim hopes were briefly boosted. Karl McKeegan sliced through the opposition and after two shots were blocked Michael Magill slammed the sliotar to the net.
Three points from frees by McNaughton levelled the argument at 1-7 to 0-10, on 27 minutes, but Antrim joy was short-lived.
Two minutes later, Canning rifled a 20-metre free to the net, and just before the break he raced in from the right wing to net again from an acute angle.
Galway led 2-13 to 1-8 at half-time, and when 35 seconds after the restart Damien Hayes posted another Galway goal, the game was up for Antrim.
Galway dominated the second half, confining Antrim to just two points. The winners hit another 3-8, the goals coming from Alan Kerins and substitute Kerril Wade, who got two near the end.
Antrim were further hurt by the dismissal in the 55th minute of their half-time replacement Michael McCambridge for a second yellow-card offence.
GALWAY: J Skehill; D Joyce (0-1), F Moore, O Canning; S Kavanagh, J Lee, D Forde; A Cullinane (0-2), F Healy (0-2); A Kerins (1-1), C Donnellan (0-2), I Tannian (0-3); D Hayes (1-2), E Cloonan (0-1), J Canning (2-6, 1-2 frees). Subs: N Healy for Forde (42 mins), A Callanan for Tannian (50 mins), K Wade (2-0)for Cloonan (56 mins), C Callanan for Skehill (inj, 59 mins), M Kerins for Donnellan (63 mins).
ANTRIM: R McGarry; A Graffin, J McKeague, M Kettle; C Herron, K McKeegan (0-2, 0-1 free), J Campbell; K Stewart (0-2), M Magill (1-0); M Herron (0-2), E McCloskey, D McNaughton (0-4, all frees); P Richmond, C Donnelly, P Shiels. Subs: M McCambridge for Kettle (half-time), PJ O'Connell for McNaughton (53 mins), S McNaughton for Stewart (inj, 58 mins), S McCrory for Magill (63 mins).
Referee: J Ryan(Tipperary).
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