ANTRIM’S joint-manager Gearoid Adams has welcomed the return of Irish League goalkeeper Sean O’Neill for the remainder of the summer – and hopes the Michael Davitt’s clubman will be around for next year’s NFL Division Three campaign.
Both Adams and Frank Fitzsimons made an approach to the highly-rated O’Neill after watching him in a recent club game at Falls Park.
O’Neill, who currently plays midfield for Davitt’s, stepped away from the county scene five years ago to concentrate on his soccer career with Irish League club Crusaders.
O’Neill, who has won back-to-back league titles with Crusaders, has emerged as the best goalkeeper in local soccer but Adams and Fitzsimons anticipate him competing for a midfield berth ahead of Antrim’s All-Ireland Qualifier against Limerick on Saturday June 25.
“We had a scour around the county, watching different League games,” Adams explained.
“Frank and me went to the Falls Park to watch Davitt’s play Aghgallon where big ‘Oggers’ [Sean O’Neill] was playing and we’ve brought him into the squad. Sean’s a great lad. He plays goals in soccer but plays in midfield for his club.
“He’s a very good player and has a great presence. We’re delighted to have him on board.”
Antrim’s hopes of retaining O’Neill for next season’s NFL campaign might prove problematic due to his on-going commitments with champions Crusaders. The Shore Road club are currently in close season.
“We’d be hoping we could work out something where Sean can play for us in the League next year,” said Adams.
Former Irish League soccer player and Bredagh's top scorer Alan Davidson is another new recruit and potential panellist for Antrim’s All-Ireland Qualifier campaign.
Meanwhile, Adams is confident Antrim won’t suffer a repeat of their “collective no-show” in the first half of their Ulster Championship preliminary round defeat to Fermanagh last month as they prepare to face Limerick.
They didn’t get off the mark until the 23rd minute in Brewster Park and by half-time they trailed 0-9 to 0-2.
However, Antrim managed to out-score their hosts in a much-improved second half - 0-7 to 1-3 - but the damage was done in the opening period.
"In the first half we had a collective no-show, bar maybe one or two players. But when we took the shackles off in the second half we got it back to three points.
“Bar Fermanagh’s late goal it could have been a tighter last five or six minutes, but when it went to six points Fermanagh could kill the game off.”
After winning promotion out of Division Four the previous month, hopes were high in the Antrim camp of causing a Championship upset at Brewster Park.
“It actually came as a surprise to us,” Adams said.
“Even though we’d been playing Division Four and Fermanagh Division Two, we might have had lulls in games but not a collective one for nearly a full half, which we had against Fermanagh. But whenever you look back at the video you see the easy chances we missed.
“It was frustrating to watch Tomas Corrigan hitting wonder points and we were missing basic ones. It’s disappointing but a learning experience for the players and we have to take the positives from our second half performance.”
“I don’t see that kind of first half performance happening again - definitely not. We also hid a few injuries going into the game, just like a lot of management teams do.
“Niall McKeever had to pull out before the game and young Dermot McAleese carried a rib injury into the game, although Dermot did play well when he came on, so those type of things didn’t help.”
