Football

Sligo bench could swing Antrim tie

Antrim and Sligo both started their league campaigns with good wins, but the value of them is hard to gauge at this stage. Picture by Cliff Donaldson
Antrim and Sligo both started their league campaigns with good wins, but the value of them is hard to gauge at this stage. Picture by Cliff Donaldson Antrim and Sligo both started their league campaigns with good wins, but the value of them is hard to gauge at this stage. Picture by Cliff Donaldson

Allianz Football League Division Two: Sligo v Antrim (tomorrow, 2pm, Markievicz Park)

YOU can take nothing away from their opening day pursuits, yet the truth is that we’ve no real idea where Sligo or Antrim stand in the grand scheme of Division Four’s promotion race.

Of the two, that’s perhaps marginally less true for Antrim, but if Wexford’s struggles are all that last Sunday’s performance suggested they could be then the Saffrons’ victory over them will shed some of its weight.

That it was the first time in almost six years that they’d scored three goals in a league game, and yet came away disappointed by their attacking display, perhaps tells you more about Paul Galvin’s side than it does about Lenny Harbinson’s.

As the saying goes, though, you can only eat what’s set down to you. Antrim saw an opportunity and thanks to a good handful of encouraging individual displays, the wheels were set in motion on 2020.

Sligo flew back across the Irish Sea on Sunday evening with the strangest of sensations settling in on them. It had been 18 months since they’d beaten London in an All-Ireland qualifier, and by hitting five goals in Ruislip they secured their first win in the time since.

Paul Taylor’s men endured an awful 2019 in which they didn’t win a single game in any competition, and so irrespective of who it was against and what it looked like, they’ll take the two points and run with it.

A 5-9 to 0-11 victory looks comprehensive but it must be balanced by the fact that two of their three first half goals were courtesy of terrible defensive errors by the rookie Exiles.

Red Óg Murphy, having returned home from the AFL, made his first league appearance for the county. The star of their 2017 minor team that was pipped by a point in an All-Ireland quarter-final against eventual beaten finalists Derry, Murphy’s comeback does go some way towards offsetting their winter losses.

Losing captain Niall Murphy, their captain and a player who was in Ireland’s International Rules squad in 2017, as well as the steady and versatile Adrian McIntyre leaves them minus a quality that they can’t afford to be without.

Just eight of the side that won in Ruislip featured in last year’s championship, although they’re strengthened by the return of goalkeeper Aidan Devaney and forward Liam Gaughan.

It was their bench that was interesting, with Pat Hughes, Keelan Cawley, Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen and Neil Ewing all coming into the game last weekend. Expect the heat on Antrim to be turned up by a number of those men starting tomorrow.

The Saffrons have named the same 15 that started against Wexford, which is no surprise given that they did everything asked of them. They were disciplined and organised. Sligo will struggle to break them down.

Ruairi McCann and Paddy Cunningham led the line with 2-7 between them against Wexford, while Conor Murray dropped deeper and offered plenty when he ran at the opposition, but will hope for a better day with the feet this time.

Paddy McBride was also quiet and if Antrim get what they usually do out of him, their attack will be in a position to trouble Sligo.

Ricky Johnston is the most physically suited of the Antrim defence to Red Óg Murphy, and even if Hughes and / or Marren start, they’re likely to be left to Mark Gardiner and Patrick Gallagher to sort out.

Antrim should view this with relish rather than fear. A good start will play on Sligo’s fragility. Whether they have the depth to cope if Sligo do keep a strong bench could be the issue.

Sligo by two.