O'Neill and co just happy to get ball rolling back in the big time

STEPHEN O’NEILL came up the steps from Casement and smiled on the sea of microphones which greeted him. Back in the big time.

“First game of the championship is always tough, we were up against it we knew as we didn’t have a good league campaign. We were just focused on getting our performance right. We were a long way off performing at our best, we will have to up it again. It is a work in progress.”

The second half had probably contained a few more hairy moments than O’Neill had banked on but Tyrone had picked up the pace in due time.

“When they got they got the goal the crowd got behind them and gave them a lift. The boys in midfield got a grip again and we pegged on a few at the end. It was hot out there today. Nobody finds it that easy on days like today but we left ourselves something to work on. For me it is great to be back.”

Owen Mulligan, whose partnership with O’Neill looks as if it will ultimately be as profitable as that with Peter Canavan, had enjoyed his afternoon in Belfast. That goal in the first half? “I remember I should have collected the ball the first timer. I dropped it. Lucky I got back to tackle. Saw a corner of their goal. Just went for it and thankfully it went in. We needed it at that time. Thank God it went in.”

And after the tea and oranges and inscrutable Mickey Harte team talk? “It was tough in the second half. We were outside the comfort zone a bit but he brought on the subs to pick it up. We missed some scores and that’s something to work on.”

Harte himself was content: “We negotiated it with a struggle. Our first half was decent. We should have been further ahead. We created more than we took in the first half. It was a decent lead but catchable. There was a good wind and Antrim kept tagging back a few after the break. We were always under pressure. We had two goals and there was a degree of safetly in that, but Antrim worked very hard and asked a lot of serious questions. We answered them to a degree. We have plenty to work on.”

That second half didn’t scare Harte as much as leave him wondering when his team were going to pick it up. Typically he was generous about the vanquished.

“Antrim impressed me in the second half and we were hanging on by our fingertips at the end of the game. A lot of credit must go to Antrim – they have been making statements of their ambition to going higher and they made a big statement in this game. I am sure no one will want to draw them in the qualifiers.”

Liam Bradley standing a few feet away was less charmed. Owen Mulligan’s goal he felt was larceny. “We were back in it in the last few minutes and the last two frees they got were disgraceful. The lads tried hard and we came back well in the second half but we were beaten by the better team. Their second goal though is a big talking point because it came at a crucial stage.

“We would have been quite happy going in four points down at half-time but that turned it into a seven-point deficit and it was going to hard coming back from that. It was a foul. Everyone in Casement saw that.”

Regrets are the carry-on baggage of the qualifiers.