ANTRIM boss Enda McGinley said he hoped his players’ pride had been hurt by Saturday’s surprise home defeat to Limerick – and forward Ryan Murray insists it is up to the Saffrons to ensure they hit back against Wicklow on February 19.
McGinley cut a frustrated figure after goals from Cian Sheehan and Peter Nash inside the opening 10 minutes left Antrim with a mountain to climb as they sought to build on the momentum of an impressive opening day victory over Fermanagh in Enniskillen.
At Corrigan Park on Saturday, they were brought back down to earth with a bump.
Lamh Dhearg forward Murray led the Antrim fightback in the second half, landing four points in-a-row – including two superb swirling efforts from play – as the Saffrons closed the gap to two with 13 minutes left to play.
However, the Treaty held firm to send McGinley’s men into the National League break knowing their can’t afford any more hiccups in Division Three.
“Definitely, it’s a tough one to take now - the first game at home after getting a good win away in Fermanagh last week,” said Murray.
“They [Limerick] fully deserved it today, they came up and out it up to us in the first half, the two goals took the stuffing out of us.
“Six down at half-time, we got it back to two points with 10 or 15 minutes to go and you’re right in it at that stage. That’s probably the annoying part, more than conceding the two goals in the first half, because we still got ourselves right there to maybe nick a draw or even get a win. Unfortunately it just didn’t happen.
“We fought back well to try and get into it but we just didn’t have enough in the end. Going into a two week break, you want to go into that with momentum. Unfortunately we’re going in having dropped points.
“But if you look at it the other way, there’s two weeks now to regroup and put things right, where if you were out next weekend you might not have time to recover and set things in place.”
And while Antrim had held the Indian sign over Limerick in recent years, beating the Treaty by 18 points just before the pandemic, the Saffrons have an opportunity to settle a score of their own when Wicklow visit Corrigan Park.
Upon the League’s resumption in the autumn of 2020, Antrim’s Division Four promotion charge suffered a hammer blow from which they were unable to recover as they inexplicably fell to a 7-11 to 0-7 on a day to forget in Aughrim.
Murray, though, says that result will matter for little when the counties collide again.
“If you ask Limerick, I’m sure they were thinking the same,” said the 28-year-old.
“There was chat of the game we played them a few years ago and that went the other way, but they’ve come here today and turned us over.
“To be honest, stuff from a couple of years ago is kind of irrelevant now. You could see the conditions too, it’s just who wants it more and who’s going to dog it out.
“It’s up to us now to regroup.”
And that is his manager’s full intention, with McGinley insisting Antrim can go “one of two ways” in the rest of their campaign.
“Look, there's a chance now to put the heads down and work hard with a touch of realism, and it's up to the group how to respond,” said the former Tyrone star.
“We've had a good opening part of the season and this is a knock-back today, but with that knock-back you can go one of two ways and we'd be pretty confident the group will knuckle down and work hard.
“It's a challenge but you don't shirk away from that, and the timing is almost perfect. We've two weeks to get good work in and get ready for Wicklow.
“If we think that anything but our absolute best is going to get any result out of Wicklow, we're kidding ourselves.”
