Football

Galvin steps into the wilderness and Antrim take a first step out

Antrim's Ruairi McCann, who scored 2-1 for the Saffrons, gets away from Wexford's Gavin Sheehan. Picture by Cliff Donaldson
Antrim's Ruairi McCann, who scored 2-1 for the Saffrons, gets away from Wexford's Gavin Sheehan. Picture by Cliff Donaldson Antrim's Ruairi McCann, who scored 2-1 for the Saffrons, gets away from Wexford's Gavin Sheehan. Picture by Cliff Donaldson

Allianz National Football League Division Four: Antrim 3-10 Wexford 0-13

FAR away from the bright lights of Croke Park that his fellow countymen enjoyed on Saturday night, Paul Galvin found out what it will take to lead Wexford out of the wilderness as his managerial league debut ended in a more comprehensive defeat than the scoreline suggests.

While he enjoyed watching on TV as David Clifford and Brian Fenton do their thing in front of 45,000, the former Kerry captain said he equally enjoyed being in rather more modest surroundings as a couple of hundred hardys bunched up for heat in Glenavy.

“I didn’t enjoy the result but…”

Nor, truth be told, will he enjoy looking back on much of the performance. Because while he had praise for his players’ resolve and energy to recover from a poor start, they were so far off at times that it’s very hard to gauge Antrim’s performance.

This was the first time the Saffrons had scored three goals in a league game since 2014 and yet Lenny Harbinson’s biggest bugbear was how wasteful Antrim were in attack, both in terms of their shooting and the amount of ball they gave away. That says it all, really.

While they did give ball away and they did kick wides, there was also a lot of good in what Antrim did.

Paddy Cunningham, who had a score within 30 seconds of his return to county football following a six-year hiatus, orchestrated an attack in which Ruairi McCann did well, gobbling up 2-1 and acting as a lively focal point.

Eunan Walsh was particularly prominent in the first half, holding a very wide position on the left wing and cutting in. It was to great effect when he did exactly that to score the game’s opening goal five minutes before half-time.

Antrim needed it at that stage, having led by 0-6 to 0-1 early on but been pulled back level by five unanswered scores by the visitors.

Walsh formed an alliance with the returning Peter Healy down the left wing, while Antrim midfield duo Colum Duffin and debutant Marc Jordan gave them a real springboard from deep, albeit the decision-making of the pair highlighted the contrast in how long they’d been operating at inter-county level.

Antrim were the more adventurous side too, keeping two up top all day and looking to kick it more. Wexford dropped very deep, playing with Brian Malone as a full-time sweeper, and had Ben Brosnan running a very lonely marathon up top on his own.

He battled and scraped around for everything, grabbing three points from play, although had he found the net rather than the fingertips of Oisin Kerr’s brilliant save late on it might have altered the result.

Jonathan Bealin in beside him got very little change out of Ricky Johnston, and despite scoring 0-13, Wexford will be concerned by how seldom they really troubled the Antrim full-back line outside of what Brosnan did.

Allied to that, while Martin O’Connor did a fair good job on Conor Murray, they saw Gavin Sheehan and Jim Rossiter struggle in their own full-back line, constantly switching the pair of them back and forth.

“Probably defending, our defensive play in general, we need to look at,” said Galvin when asked where things needed to improve.

“It’s collective things, we need to take a look at our shape and see where we got caught. It looked like we got caught on numbers, they got a bit of an overload on us on this side, so we have to identify where we got caught short on bodies.

“I thought we fought back well. We didn’t start well but we responded well. We were there in the game at half-time, we were pretty happy, but the restart wasn’t good for us after half-time.”

Antrim got the big scores at the right times. Walsh’s goal took them 1-6 to 0-6 ahead, a lead which was nipped into again by half-time, at which point it was 1-7 to 0-8.

Not only was Walsh affecting the game in attack, but he also covered back on to Niall Hughes. The Carlow IT man had been Wexford’s one real bright spark in the first half, as well as their outlet on kickouts, but his influence diminished once Walsh settled back into the same pocket of space.

Within two minutes of the restart, Antrim took the carving knife out. They sallied right down the middle and worked the spare man beautifully to leave Ruairi McCann a simple palmed finish at the far post.

The game went very lifeless thereafter as a feeling of job done washed over proceedings, and when McCann pounced on a Brian Malone error to net his second, it left Antrim seven clear.

Malone went to gather Conor Murray’s long punt but, under no pressure, took his eye off it. McCann gathered and sensed the chance to turn and put his head down, although Patrick Doyle was a tad unlucky not to keep the powerful shot out.

Although it was across the next 13 minutes, Wexford got the next three scores to bring a bit of tension back into proceedings, and had Kerr – who had a good debut – not tipped over from Brosnan it could have been a very nervy finish.

Colum Duffin, who had a fine second half, and Patrick McBride landed the final two scores as both sides finished with 14, with Glen Malone sent off harshly for Wexford and Ruairi McCann picking up a late, and equally soft, black card late on.

“It’s obvious to a blind man there what we need to work on. It’s frustrating, the amount of possession we had that we didn’t convert,” said Harbinson about their attacking play, although he was otherwise pleased.

Having found themselves chasing so many league campaigns after opening-day struggles, Antrim are at the head of the pack. But Wexford were so disappointing that it’s impossible to know if the Saffrons will stay there.

MATCH STATS


Antrim: O Kerr; R Johnston, M Gardiner; P Gallagher, D Lynch, J McAuley, P Healy; C Duffin (0-2), M Jordan; E Walsh (1-0), P McBride (0-1 free), N Delargy; C Murray; P Cunningham (0-6, 0-4 frees), R McCann (2-1)


Subs: C Small for Cunningham (53), E Nagle for Johnston (60), A Loughran for Delargy (69), D McAleese for Duffin (69)


Black card: R McCann (75)

Wexford: P Doyle; G Sheehan, J Rossiter; M O’Connor; B Malone; R Devereux, C Carty, G Malone (0-2); E Nolan, R Heffernan; T Byrne (0-1), J Stafford, N Hughes (0-1); J Bealin (0-4, 0-3 frees, 0-1 mark), B Brosnan (0-4, 0-1 free)


Subs: J Dunne for Heffernan (49), S Nolan (0-1) for Stafford (53), M Rossiter for Bealin (67), L Coleman for Nolan (75)


Yellow cards: G Malone (17, 74)


Red card: G Malone (74, second yellow)

Referee: B Tiernan (Dublin)