Double delight!
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Winning senior hurling captain Paul Shields collects the Senior Hurling Championship title at Casement Park on Sunday afternoon.
Antrim...............................................4-22
Down..................................................1-12
Ulster senior hurling championship medals have become two a penny for Antrim hurlers. As they picked up the Liam Harvey Cup for the ninth consecutive time some of their more experienced players must be wondering about storage space as their haul gets bigger and bigger. WiFor many of the players, Ulster medals have become much easier to pick up than county championship ones and certainly the one they collected at Casement Park on Sunday was the easiest they will ever get.
They simply blew Down away and handed out one of the biggest defeats any team has ever suffered at this level.
There was only one side in it from start to finish. Banisteoir Dinny Cahill certainly had his charges well-tuned into this game and it must give the side an added boost as they prepare to take on Laois in this Sunday's qualifier.
A Liam Watson goal after 14 minutes, when he was well positioned to whack home a PJ O'Connell effort which came off the crossbar, was a score which had a marked effect on the Down side although they already trailed by seven points. They simply could not get into the game as Antrim scored from here, there and everywhere.
Liam Watson got the show on the road with an opening minute point with Shane McNaughton repeating the process when he returned the puck out.
McNaughton was again in action in the third minute and Watson followed suit in the sixth. And so it continued, Ciaran Herron, Neil McManus and Watson with another three points as Down failed to get any way into the game.
When Watson found the net and Johnny Campbell and Karl McKeegan added further points the Down men would have been relieved had Casement Park opened up and swallowed them.
Their first point came from a Paul Braniff free in the 18th minute and they managed just two more, from Johnny McCusker and Eoin Clarke before the break. By that stage this Ulster final was over as the Saffrons continued to dish out the punishment. McNaughton, two McKeegan scores, Watson with his fourth point and Mc Naughton with another made it 1-14 to 0-2 with seven minutes of the half remaining.
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