GAA: ALL IRELAND SHC QUALIFIERS: Antrim 2-25 Westmeath 1-19:THE WESTMEATH players were reflecting on what might have been after Saturday's All-Ireland SHC qualifier at Casement Park.
The winning margin was a healthy nine points but had the visitors been more active during the opening quarter the outcome might have been different. When Westmeath took the game to the opposition after half-time, they proved more than a match for them.
“We didn’t play well, at all, in the first half and it cost us dearly,” said Westmeath manager Brian Hanley. “When we upped our game after the break we showed we were capable of winning. We were not winning enough clean possession in the first half and not getting the breaks. That killed us. But we can’t make excuses – Antrim won the game fair and square.”
Antrim stormed off to be 1-10 to 1-1 ahead on 19 minutes, with Paul Granville’s 11th-minute goal, from an acute angle, keeping his team in the game. Conor McCann had netted for Antrim three minutes earlier amid a flurry of home points.
The home scoring spree did halt during the second quarter as Brendan Murtagh popped over Westmeath points from both play and frees, with one spectacular effort sailing over the bar from a sideline cut.
However, Antrim had a pretty comfortable cushion of 2-16 to 1-9 at the interval and with the slight breeze to be in their favour on the resumption there didn’t seem much danger of an away win.
The visitors had other ideas and closed the gap to just three points 11 minutes after the restart.
Then came what Antrim star Neil McManus described as the turning point.
“At that stage it was anybody’s game but up stepped Cormac (Donnelly) from full back to put over a free from more than 100 yards. That certainly proved to be the turning point as we never looked back from there,” said McManus, who cracked over 10 points himself.
Donnelly’s spectacular strike gave the home side a 2-18 to 1-17 lead and the visitors were confined to just two more points during the closing 26 minutes of the match as the winners rifled over seven for a deserved victory and a second round date with Carlow, also at Casement Park, next weekend.
ANTRIM: C O’Connell; C McGuinness, C Donnelly (0-1, free), K McGourty; A Graffin (0-1), M Herron, N McAuley; P Shiels (0-3), C Herron (0-1); S McCrory (0-2), K Stewart (0-2), N McManus (0-10, 0-8 frees); C McCann (2-1), D Hamill (0-2), J Black. Subs: K Molloy for C Herron (49 mins), C McFall (0-1, free) for Black (54 mins), B McFall (0-1) for M Herron (66 mins), J McCouaig for McGourty (69 mins).
WESTMEATH: C Scally; C Flanagan, D McCormack, A McGrath; E Price, A Mitchell, P Gilsenan; P Dowdall (0-3), B Smyth; C Curley (0-1), P Grenville (1-0), B Murtagh (0-10, 0-5 frees, 0-1 sideline); J Shaw (0-2), D McNicholas (0-3), D Carty. Subs: A Price for McGrath (half-time), A Devine for Carty (43 mins), K Martin for McCormack (54 mins).
Referee: T Carroll (Offaly).
