ANTRIM survived an amazing Glen Dimplex Premier Junior semi-final against Clare in the second game at Bord na Móna O’Connor Park in Tullamore on Saturday, emerging with a single point victory.
The game finished level, went to extra time of ten minutes each way and was still level. That meant a further five minutes each way. Antrim centre-half back Megan McGarry was the only scorer in extra, extra time to avoid a Croke Park finalist for August 7 being decided on 45s.
McGarry also picked up the Player of the Match award in a game that began at 3.30pm and was still running at 6pm.
“My God, I thought the referee wasn’t going to blow the final whistle at all. There were stoppages during both those five minute periods and someone told me that they were eight and nine minutes each. I have never played a game like that," she said.
“The teams were very evenly matched, there was nothing to separate us at all.
“This is our first year with this team and we have come on so much. To fight as well as we did, just showed that we have really bonded as a team and had each other’s back.”
The Loughgiel player admitted that her free from halfway wasn’t intended to go over for the winning point.
“No, I was just looking to get it on target, to drop it into the area and see what happened. I hit it as hard as I could and luckily I got a good connection and it went over. Getting our noses in front at that stage was a big thing and we had to really work to maintain that lead.”
Antrim’s joint management of Brian Kearney and Mark 'Duck' McFadden were obviously over the moon with the victory.
“We’re delighted with the girls, who’ve put in such an incredible effort. And commiserations to Clare. It’s a tough game to lose, no-one deserved to lose a game like,” said Kearney.
“It was just two great teams going at it,” gushed McFadden.
“It was exactly what we’ve been training for, extra time and all the rest, and it was put to good use.
“We always believed the girls could get there. At training, if you ask them to do something, they always do it. They keep pushing on, every week that goes by they work harder in training, and that’s all we could ask for. We have an honest group of players and we always get that from them, just like you saw there today.”
Antrim senior manager Elaine Dowds watched the game from the stands and praised the work done by Kearney and McFadden.
“It was a lethal performance. Because our games were mostly on the same day as the juniors, I only got to see bits and pieces in real time and I watched the rest on recordings. Just to witness that work-rate and team-work was an experience.
“Brian and Duck deserve a huge amount of credit for what they have done with these girls. They must have given them huge belief in themselves, because the heads never went down at any point.
“I was totally mesmerised by the subs going on, coming off in extra time and extra extra time. I hadn’t a clue what was happening. But the boys were able to rotate players, take some off for ten minutes and then re-introduce them so that they had the key players in the right places when it really counted.
“I thought Áine (Graham) in goals was magnificent; a couple of excellent saves and she also took down a couple of shots going over for points to put Antrim back on the attack.
“Those were opportunities Clare had to close the game out, but they couldn’t take them. It must be soul-destroying to lose a game like that, but so good to win it. It gives a team so much belief.”
