RYAN Murray insists Antrim must use the hurt of Saturday's disappointing defeat to Limerick to fuel them ahead of next week's home game against Wicklow.
The Saffrons opened their Division Three campaign with a huge win at Fermanagh, but failed to back it up against the Shannonsiders on Saturday as a poor start left them chasing the game.
A large crowd had arrived at Corrigan Park hoping to see Antrim make it two wins from two, but it wasn't to be as the visitors were just that bit better and led from the second minute onward.
With a free weekend ahead, the break will give Antrim time to work on what went wrong ahead of their next fixture on Saturday week.
"Going into a two week break, you want to go into that with momentum," said the Lámh Dhearg attacker who kicked five points in the loss.
"Unfortunately we’re going in having dropped points. But if you look at it the other way, there’s two weeks now to regroup and put things right, where if you were out next weekend you might not have time to recover and set things in place."
There were no excuses after the defeat, but a bitter disappointment the they had failed to fire.
Despite trailing by eight at one stage, Antrim got the gap down to two, but that was as close as they got as Limerick found the answers to finish well and take what was a fully-merited victory to maintain their 100 peer cent start to Division Three.
Murray curls over one of his five points 
"It’s a tough one to take now, the first game at home after getting a good win away in Fermanagh last week," Murray reflected.
"They fully deserved it today, they came up and out it up to us in the first half, the two goals took the stuffing out of us. We fought back well to try and get into it but we just didn’t have enough in the end.
"Six down at half-time, we got it back to two points with 10 or 15 minutes to go and you’re right in it at that stage.
"That’s probably the annoying part, more than conceding the two goals in the first half, because we still got ourselves right there to maybe nick a draw or even get a win. Unfortunately it just didn’t happen."
Limerick may have arrived in Belfast with added fire in the belly due to their heavy defeat to Antrim in 2020.
The shoe could be on the other foot next weekend as Antrim, who looked well place for promotion after that win in Portglenone, lost all momentum when Covid hit and when they did finally get to face Wicklow in Aughrim, would suffer a heavy defeat that killed their aspirations.
However, revenge will not be on the minds next weekend and Murray insists this is a new game that has to be won on its own merits.
"To be honest, stuff from a couple of years ago is kind of irrelevant now," he insists.
"You could see the conditions too, it’s just who wants it more and who’s going to dog it out. It’s up to us now to regroup."
