DEFEATS are never easy to take, but Ronan Boyle felt the manner of Antrim's performance on Saturday gives them plenty to build on heading into the Tailteann Cup.

Heading into Corrigan Park, few if any outside of the Antrim camp gave the Saffrons much chance of causing an upset against Armagh, but for the majority of the game, they were in position to strike before the All-Ireland champions seized control and didn't let go.

Antrim's players backed themselves in the build-to to Saturday's Ulster SFC quarter-final, refusing to budge on their stance that the game was being played in Corrigan Park or not at all. They won that battle but that meant they had to deliver on the pitch and on Saturday, they backed themselves again, emerging with great credit for contributing to what was an excellent game. 

"We knew that if we had to fight to play here, that we needed to put on a performance," Boyle said.

"For 50, 60 minutes we did that and we have no complaints. We battled to the very end.  

"The aim was to give as good a performance as we could. There was only a few points in it and especially the two-pointers now in it, that the score, six points is really three, like there's nothing really in it. So we really thought 50, 60 minutes on that we were in it, and then it started to pull away. But I thought we showed a lot of fight and showed a lot of courage today to come out and put on a performance after a tough league campaign."

The League didn't go to plan at all with relegation to Division Four the outcome as they came out on the wrong side of one-score games on three occasions, which ultimately cost them.

A little more composure and consistency, and it would have been a much different story, so the level of performance they produced on Saturday must now be the standard heading into the Tailteann Cup.

The past two years saw Antrim reach the semi-finals at Croke Park in that competition, so the objective now is to aim higher and performing as they did against Armagh will help no end.

"If we had put that first-half performance in most of the league games, we'd be seven, eight, nine points ahead of most teams," the St Brigid's man reflected.

"I don't know what it was in the league, but we just sort of lacked a bit of composure, which we really showed there today. We were able to get the ball, shift it, hold on to it, have really cool heads and we had a lot of fight in us. 

"Our main aim is to put that performance aside and bring it into the Tailteann and see where it takes us because we've got two semis in a row. We need to really push on now and get to the finals and start winning."

A march to Casement Park on Saturday morning by Gaels demanding the redevelopment of the stadium did not go unnoticed by the team either.

As the rally inside the derelict ground took place, Antrim's team bus passed and the players were certainly lifted by the numbers in attendance.

It was a great occasion at Corrigan Park on Saturday, but going forward, Antrim needs to return to its home as the weekend proved there is a huge appetite for these big occasions.

"We drove past the march on the way here on the bus and the turnout at it was absolutely class," Boyle noted.

"It just shows people that Casement really needs to be built and we really want Casement. If we had Casement before now, then we'd have a much bigger crowd here. We really need to get Casement moving. It's taken a long time, but I think we need to get the wheels in motion and start to get it built."