Allianz Football League Division Three
Tipperary v Antrim (Thurles, Saturday, 6pm)

AFTER falling short against Offaly and Down, Antrim will be looking their first League win on Saturday in their Division Three football campaign against a side who have also lost their opening two fixtures, Tipperary.

Like the Saffrons, the Premier County lost narrowly to Down and in their following game against Cavan, they lost by a slightly heavier margin.

But the 2020 Munster football champions have the ability to cause the Saffrons a lot of difficulty on their home patch in Semple Stadium and they are led by the successful manager David Power, who helped the squad reach the semi-final of the All-Ireland Football Championship in 2020.

Both sides will be keen to claim victory on Sunday as more defeats for either side could risk relegation to Division Four, which has been a familiar experience for the Saffrons over the years. But with young stars such as Dominic McEnhill, the Ruairi McCanns (Creggan and Aghagallon) and Pat Shivers, it’s fair to say that Antrim won’t take defeat lying down against Tipperary who struggled in their 1-19 to 1-7 defeat at Kingspan Breffni against Cavan.

Dara McVeety proved a thorn in the Premier side that struggled in attack and managed just 1-1 from play with their goal coming from Sean O’Connor.

Antrim were much more unfortunate against Down at Pairc Esler as the Mournemen somehow produced a late smash and grab after Antrim had dominated much of the game and appeared in a match-winning position with just minutes to go thanks to two goals from Aghagallon’s McCann whose return to the attack has given them a talented target man with a knack for finding the net.

New boss Andy McEntee is yet to experience his first competitive win managing the Saffrons.

While he will be keeping a close eye on Antrim’s first game against Armagh in the Ulster Championship later on this year, the priority for now is to start banking League points in order to stave off any threat of dropping down to the bottom tier as the ambition is to ultimately move in the opposite direction in the coming years.

McEntee’s men, who missed their chances against Offaly and failed to shut up shop against Down, will need to rectify these mistakes if they have any chance of beating Tipperary on Saturday and won’t want to place another match in the list games that slipped away.

Given the fact that Tipperary played in Division Four last year shows that Antrim might outperform them given the Saffrons’ experience in Division Three, but Thurles has proven to be a tricky venue for Antrim teams and with both counties searching for their opening win, it looks set to be a dogfight under the Thurles floodlights.

The absence of some of Antrim’s key players, such as Paddy McBride throughout their league campaign is a blow to McEntee’s men, but many of the new faces have performed well including Rossa’s Dominic McEnhill, while the return of Conor Stewart after missing out last season due to injury has bolstered the midfield.

McBride, a PE teacher in Coláiste Feirste secondary school, was involved in the Dr McKenna Cup but injury will leave him sidelined for a spell.

The St John’s man has thrown his weight behind Andy McEntee’s leadership and is an experienced player, having played at Casement Park back in 2013.

McBride is also experienced coach, having helped out with the St John’s ladies. He spoke candidly about his recent injury.

“I’m just raging,” he said.

“It’s just something stupid. I was tackling someone. My fingers just sort of got caught. It’s crunch time basically so you’re out of action for a while.

“What I’m doing at the minute is exactly what I was doing only I can’t play Gaelic football. I do everything I can apart from actually play.”

When asked about the Antrim’s performance against Offaly and Down, McBride praised the Saffrons’ performance.

“When you watch the video back, we’re actually far better than them,” he insists.

“We missed five goal chances. So when you add all them up, you win convincingly. I think we’re much better than we actually thought.

“I thought against Down we were absolutely brilliant. We dominated the match. Game management towards the end probably would’ve won it for us.”

When asked about his hopes for the season, McBride very much insists it’s a one game at a time mentality for the Saffrons.
“The last thing on our minds is anything further than the match in front of us. The only focus will be Tipperary on Saturday,” he said.

McBride also wanted to give a special mention to the background staff in the Antrim setup.

“There’s people you wouldn’t even hear about,” he noted.

“We wouldn’t be there without them. The likes of Roy McLarnon, Peter Bunting, Jody Bunting… they’re basically our kitmen, they have training ready for you, they make our job as players easy.

“They’re so important. They probably don’t get the credit they deserve.”