A LONE horse munched contentedly on a clump of grass near the derelict farm house on one side of the lane that leads down to Corrigan Park.
At the end of the lane, a few fellas in hi-vis jackets stood sentry at the gates of the St John’s club but, if you hadn’t known it was on, there was no evidence on the Whiterock Road that an intense, thrilling battle of top flight inter-county hurling was about to break out between Antrim and Clare.
With fans barred from games, only journalists and substitutes populated the smart new stand at Corrigan but amongst the journos were a few Antrim die-hards who cheered on their native county from start to finish yesterday.
Mark Sidebottom was among them. The popular BBC NI Sport commentator (I had written veteran there but decided against it) made a return to action in goal for his club Bredagh’s newly-formed hurling team recently and reported how a member of the opposition had remarked: “You’re older than our entire forward line!” as he took the field.
But that didn’t worry him because, whether it’s playing for his adopted Down club or supporting his county, Mark’s ethos remains the same.
“It doesn’t matter where you worship,” he says, “As long as the sermon is hurling.”
These days Antrim’s preacher-in-chief is manager Darren Gleeson and his born-again flock is listening. If they continue to do so then rapidly-improving Antrim have every chance of surviving in the top flight and reaping the benefits at Championship level.
Woah now! That’s all in the future, let’s focus on the present.
This season has been a long time coming but yesterday’s result was certainly worth the wait for the Glensmen who gave pre-game favourites Clare a six-point start (it was 0-9 to 0-3 early in the first half) but overhauled them to win by two.
After all the promise and positivity of promotion and the Joe McDonagh Cup triumph of 2020, Antrim began 2021 with the wind in their sails but they played into a strong breeze in the first half of yesterday’s Division 1, group B opener.
There was a clonking rattle of hurls in a ferocious early battle for a breaking ball and Tony Kelly – Clare’s outstanding performer - swung over a superb point with a flick of his wrists as the Bannermen made light of the long, long way from there to here in an energetic start.
The wind blew the flags off the sideline markers and Clare penned Antrim into their own half in the early stages but, gradually, the home side’s hard work, exemplified by their half-forward line, dragged them back into it.
Decisions, it must be said, did not always go their way. Manager Gleeson clasped his hands together in prayer as he beseeched the referee to over-turn a sideline ball awarded against his team and when the same official gave another one Clare’s way a wag among the Antrim mentors shouted: “Hi ref, we’re playing that way” and pointed to his right.
The ref had a word with his linesman who then pointed his flag right and Antrim went up the field and scored their eighth point to leave just three in it.
“Is it too early to get excited?” asked Sidebottom.
Well, possibly, but it was hard to keep emotions in check because, in the next play, Ciaran Clarke broke through the Clare rearguard and smashed in a low shot that the Banner goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan could only parry into his net.
Clare recovered to lead by two at the interval but Antrim levelled early in the second half and it was tit-for-tat from there to (almost) the finish.
“This game’s heading for a draw,” I ventured unwisely.
“Not it’s not,” replied Sidebottom with confidence.
It was still level with only seconds of normal time remaining when Neil McManus won a ball inside his own half. The Cushendall doyen side-stepped his marker and let fly from almost 90 metres.
A split second later, the wind-assisted sliothar was soaring delightfully over the black spot and, a after a couple more injury-time minutes, newly-promoted Antrim had wrapped up a win to savour.
Sidebottom glanced over with a smile twinkling in his eyes.
“I told you it wouldn’t be a draw,” he said and off he went to work relishing a terrific start for his county.
As I made my way out of the ground, the horse was still grazing and the road was still quiet and it seemed all the drama had gone unnoticed. That will change if Antrim keep playing like this.
