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Antrim looking for another victory over Laois to achieve season's second goal

Antrim's Conal Cunning in action against Ryan Mullaney of Laois in last month's Allianz Hurling League Division 1B game at Corrigan Park     Picture: Seamus  Loughran.
Antrim's Conal Cunning in action against Ryan Mullaney of Laois in last month's Allianz Hurling League Division 1B game at Corrigan Park Picture: Seamus Loughran. Antrim's Conal Cunning in action against Ryan Mullaney of Laois in last month's Allianz Hurling League Division 1B game at Corrigan Park Picture: Seamus Loughran.

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship preliminary round: Antrim v Laois (today, Parnell Park, 2.30pm, live on GAAGO)

By Seamus Maloney

NO-ONE came out of last weekend’s hurling action looking better than Dublin. Mattie Kenny’s men weren’t fancied to trouble Galway, who were going into their first Championship match as the generally accepted leading contenders to Limerick’s All-Ireland crown.

But by 4pm last Saturday afternoon, Dublin were sitting in the Leinster final, Galway were in the Qualifiers and Antrim managed to emerge from a weekend when they didn’t swing a stick in anger looking a little better than they had going into it.

What had been a dispiriting 18-point defeat to Dublin in their Leinster Championship opener – a match plenty fancied Antrim could win after an impressive League campaign – was a still a dispiriting 18-point defeat, but with some sheen added by the Dubs’ subsequent win over the Tribe.

While it may be true that their victory over Galway – albeit a Galway that missed enough chances to put a couple of games away – showed Dublin are better than many gave them credit for, just how much Antrim can take from that is debateable.

There’s no debate about the importance of the Saffrons’ clash with Laois in Dublin this afternoon. The outcome will mean the difference between Darren Gleeson’s side repeating their successful 2020 by achieving their two clear goals and ending the year cloaked in disappointment. Last year the target was to win promotion in League and Championship and earn their spots in Division One and the Liam MacCarthy Cup; this year’s it’s to stay there.

The first box was ticked in some style, and a little comfort, with their opening day Division One win over Clare and their penultimate day draw with Wexford ensuring safety before today’s opponents visited Corrigan Park in May.

They left with another defeat, their fifth of the League, and things didn’t get better in the Championship when Wexford beat them by 20 points the same day Antrim were being hammered by Dublin.

Today is the first of two relegation play-offs for Seamus Plunkett’s side, who will face Westmeath in an attempt to preserve their League status, and they will look to that Corrigan Park defeat as a source of some optimism.

Playing into a stiff first-half breeze, they hit 11 wides as Antrim ran up a six-point interval lead. In the second half they got back to within two on a couple of occasions but defensive lapses let Antrim in for two goals which proved all the difference in a four-point win.

On a neutral field today, Plunkett will expect a more accurate display from, among others, Willie Dunphy, Cha Dwyer and Ross King, especially after Laois managed to rack up 19 wides in that defeat to Wexford.

But Antrim will expect more too, not just after the Dublin match in which they were outmuscled and outfought by a far superior, seasoned Championship side, but also in comparison to the League game against Laois, when several key men were rested.

Neil McManus, Keelan Molloy and James McNaughton all got the afternoon off at Corrigan Park, one of the stars of this season, full-back Gerard Walsh, was given just over a half before being withdrawn, top scorer Ciaran Clarke only came on in the second half, and captain Conor McCann was missing through injury.

It’s this depth of options, particularly among player who can all chip in with at least three or four points from play, that should see Antrim still in the Championship this evening and safely at hurling’s top table next year.