ANTRIM’S Niall McKenna hopes the Saffrons can end their season on a high in the Ulster final despite the crushing disappointment of Saturday’s 5-17 to 4-21 extra-time defeat to Meath in the Christy Ring Cup final replay at Croke Park.
The sides were brought back to Headquarters for a re-match after Meath lifted the cup after a scoring error gave them a one-point victory in the original fixture.
As fate would have it, one point was the margin of victory for Meath on Saturday. McKenna scored 1-5 and the Sarsfield’s man feels that the concession of four goals in the second half and in extra-time left Antrim fighting an uphill battle.
“They nicked it in the end. I don’t really know what happened, I thought we played well to be honest,” said McKenna.
“Every time we got a score, they hit right back. At one stage we got a goal and 10 seconds later they got one. Every time we got a lead it never seemed like it was enough.
“They’re a good team. They’re a very strong, physical team and very fit. I thought our intensity levels were better than the last day and we went out with a bit of respect but it didn’t work out for us. We let in a couple of soft goals.
“I don’t think there’s one player out there who didn’t give their all and hopefully we’ll take that positive into the Ulster final and hopefully end the year on a high.”
Antrim will face Armagh in that provincial decider on Sunday week.
McKenna turned in a man-of-the-match performance in the semi-final win over Derry, scoring 0-9 from play, and followed it up by scoring 1-5 against Meath on Sunday.
While silverware eluded Dominic McKinley’s side last weekend, McKenna hopes Antrim can retain the Liam Harvey Cup at the expense of the Orchard county.
“We want to go out and prove to people that we can play well together and we are still a good team,” said McKenna.
“If anything it (the Meath defeat) might drive us on a bit more.”
There now appears to be a collective realisation within the Antrim camp that the Christy Ring Cup is where they deserve to be.
Prior to the two-game instalment against Meath, Antrim claimed unconvincing wins over Roscommon and Down in the earlier rounds.
McKenna admits Antrim must prove they are better than their opponents on the field before they can contemplate a return to the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
“It is disappointing but you have to beat the teams to get out of it,” said the Sarsfield’s clubman.
“We can’t say we don’t deserve to be there. We were beat and that’s that. You can’t say that we’ve had an easy game.
“Once we start putting these teams away then we can start saying that we don’t belong in the Christy Ring Cup.
“We got to the final and we have the experience of playing in Croke Park so hopefully next year will be our year.”
