Allianz Football League Division Four: Antrim v Limerick (tomorrow, 2pm, Portglenone)
DEPENDING on how The ‘B’ Competition That Shall Not Be Named turns out in summer, there may not be a bigger game involving Antrim’s footballers this year.
With their most recent adopted home of Glenavy having borne all the strain it could from storms Ciara and Denis, they’ve knocked on Portglenone’s door and been invited warmly inside just as Jorge whips its way in.
They’d just started to create some home comforts in Glenavy, having gone there from the out-of-commission Corrigan Park, which replaced The Stadium That Shall Not Be Named.
Whether all the shifting affects them, we’ll only know tomorrow evening. But this has the makings of such a tight, championship-esque game that home advantage could have been a serious factor.
These are two buoyant teams right now.
Antrim’s campaign has gone so well in the opening weeks that Mick McCann has been coaxed back out, and having come off the bench to good effect against Carlow last weekend, he may be ready for a more central part.
Paddy Cunningham’s return took the early season headlines and he has contributed 37 per cent of their scores so far courtesy of his 0-21.
He is, however, not named to start tomorrow, with Odhrán Eastwood brought into a side that also significantly contains Marty Johnston at wing-forward.
The spread of Antrim scorers is quite thin, with just nine players having scored over four games, while Limerick have had 14 different scorers
Nobody has outscored Danny Neville, whose tally is just 1-6, but that’s no major surprise given how they play.
Billy Lee has built a hard-running, counter-attacking system that came to the fore with their win over Tipperary in last year’s championship.
For instance, three of their five goals against Wicklow came from defenders. Their 5-10 to 1-14 win last weekend was a significant result against a side that had growing ambitions of their own.
The Treatymen are unbeaten so far in 2020, having won the McGrath Cup and then their opening four league games to take the early pace in Division Four.
With ten points having been enough to win promotion in all but two of the years since Kilkenny dropped out of the football league, Limerick are right on the cusp.
The loss of top scoring forward Jamie Lee, son of manager Billy, who headed for Australia after the win over Carlow, was a blow but despite being “in transition” according to their boss, 13 of their starting team has been the same across the four games so far.
Antrim have had a fairly settled look about themselves but with Wexford sitting a point ahead of them and hosting a Sligo side that took a psychological hammer blow in defeat by Waterford, there’s no real option for Antrim but win.
Whether they do will come down quite simply to the workrate of their forwards in dealing with Limerick’s threat from deep. If they fail, they’ll concede goals and lose.
Five clean sheets in six games, 315 minutes since their defences were breached. That suggests they’ll do enough. Antrim by two.
The teams
Antrim: A Hasson; P Gallagher, R Johnston, M Gardiner; D Lynch, J McAuley, P Healy; C Duffin, M Jordan; M Johnston, P McBride, N Delargy; O Eastwood, R McCann, C Murray
Subs: O Kerr, F Burke, P Cunningham, D McAleese, A Loughran, K Quinn, M McCann, R McNulty, C Small, E Nagle, E Walsh
Limerick: TBA
