ANTRIM defender Justin Crozier wants to build on “the sweetest” victory of his career when the Saffrons make their second trip of the season to Brewster Park on July 5.
The Cargin defender says the Saffrons will fear nobody after they battled back from an eight-points down to stun Laois last Saturday and a rematch of their Ulster quarter-final showdown with Fermanagh is probably the perfect way for Antrim to prove that their O’Moore Park success wasn’t just a flash in the pan.
“Coming into the (Laois) game we had no real momentum built up – we had a very poor Championship performance against Fermanagh,” said Crozier after Saturday’s win.
“I thought we were very, very poor and we never got anything going at all.
“The training was okay in the last two weeks, it wasn’t exactly inspiring. But the boys just dug in and it shows what can happen when everybody comes together. We pushed really hard and I think we deserved it.
“I said to the boys before the game ‘we have to take risks today we have to go at them’. The talent is here but we just didn’t believe it in the last couple of months.
“Something clicked today and we’ll fear nobody after that – it doesn’t matter who we play.”
With Ricky Johnston and Connor Burke both ruled out, Crozier played as an emergency full-back with a brief to shackle the dangerous Donie Kingston on Saturday. Kingston caused him problems in the first half, but by the end of the game the Antrim defence was on top and Crozier thoroughly enjoyed what has become a rare taste of Championship success.
“That’s probably the sweetest one because of the position we were in,” he said when asked where he ranked the win.
“I don’t know where it came from but we found something and we got 1-4 in that five-minute spell and the belief just came back into us.
“Laois pulled away again but we just kept battling away. We were in a position where we had nothing to lose, there was nothing expected of us and we found the opening to get the second goal and that was that.”
Meanwhile, Paddy McBride scored two points in the O’Moore Park success and says Antrim are determined to build on the win.
“We didn’t play to our potential against Fermanagh,” he said.
“I knew if we played to our potential we’d win. It was all about character – that’s what won us the match. Character.
“We don’t deserve the favourites’ tag because we still haven’t proved ourselves.
“But we showed what this team can do. There’s talent in the changing rooms, it’s playing to that potential. If we play for 70 minutes, God knows what we can do so we want to push on and start winning from now on.”
McBride will hope to hang on to his place in the starting line-up for the July 5 re-run of the Antrim-Fermanagh Ulster quarter-final meeting. But he will face competition from CJ McGourty, who was dropped on Saturday for playing for his club St Gall’s the night before. McGourty – top scorer in the May 31 loss to the Ernemen – says he is prepared to fight his way back into the team.
“That’s the way it has to be, you have to battle every day to get into the team,” he said.
“We’ll go back to training and all the issues will be in the background. But the main thing is we’re still in the Championship and that’s what we came down here to do.”
