Allianz National Hurling League Division 2A: Antrim v Carlow
(Sunday, Ballycastle, 1pm)
ANTRIM defender Barry McFall didn’t mince his words. Everything, he says, rests on Sunday’s NHL clash against Carlow.
With all eyes fixed on trying to regain their place in top flight hurling, the stakes have been raised after last week’s morale-sapping loss to Westmeath in Mullingar: “After losing to Westmeath we see this match against Carlow as a Championship game,” said McFall.
“We need to win to give ourselves a chance of reaching a league final. It’s all on this game and we have to pull out all the stops.”
The top two in Division 2A will face-off in a league final next month before the winners advance to a relegation/promotion play-off the bottom team in Division 1B.
The Christy Ring will look after itself when it comes around. Right now, all that matters are league points: “It was disappointing against Westmeath,” said McFall.
“We had a strong 15 out - we were obviously missing Ciaran [Johnston] at centre half-back, but we had enough to beat Westmeath. In fairness to them, they’re a decent side and are hard to beat, especially at home. I don’t think I’ve ever won a game in Mullingar.
“We didn’t get motoring at all. We seemed to be stuck in the same gear from the start, and I think Westmeath led from the first minute to the 70th minute.”
Free-scoring against Kildare two weeks earlier, the Saffrons amassed a mere six points from play against Westmeath who are the only unbeaten team in Division 2A after three games.
What last week’s seven-point defeat revealed to manager PJ O’Mullan and his squad is they’re still not sure of where they’re at. Their Division 2A fate was always going to come down to their two games against Westmeath and Carlow, two familiar foes of Antrim’s in recent years who also have designs on breaching Division 1B next season.
After a ropey enough first-half against Derry on Valentine’s Day, Antrim rallied to win and easily dismissed Kildare on their next outing. Their full-forward line - Ciaran Clarke, Saul McCaughan and Conor Johnston - hogged most of the headlines after the Lilywhites win but they struggled to contend with a more physically strong Westmeath backline last week.
Undoubtedly, a wheel was punctured in Mullingar. But a win over Carlow, who trounced 12-man Derry last weekend by 22 points, will reassert their promotion play-off credentials.
“The likes of Laois, Carlow and Westmeath are the teams that we’ve been paired with quite a lot since I’ve been involved [in the seniors] and there’s nothing between us and them," he added.
“You have to earn the right to hurl against Carlow; they’re a very physical team and they put themselves about. But we’re no pushovers; we’ve been doing a lot of work in the gym so we’ll be trying to counteract that on Sunday.”
With Antrim still missing the Cushendall contingent while key player Paul Shiels remains on the long-term injury list the vast majority of the team that lost in Mullingar last week will probably be given a shot at redemption in Ballycastle.
Donal Nugent and Niall McKenna are showing encouraging signs in the saffron jersey and both will have learned quite a bit from last week’s chastening lesson in Mullingar. McCaughan and Eddie McCloskey were held scoreless but they are likely to be key players in the Antrim attack against Carlow whose dangermen are Jonathan O’Dwyer, Denis Murphy and Martin Kavanagh.
“We are down a division from last year and you always want to measure yourself against the better teams,” added McFall (27).
“No disrespect to the teams we’ve played, but it’s hard to gauge where you’re at. We obviously want to get back to Division 1B but it’s hard to say whether we’re up to that standard yet.
"All you can do is try and improve with each game. Carlow is such an important game for us.”
