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Saffrons prove mettle with last-gasp victory

Thursday, 22 July 2010

PJ O'Connell celebrates his goal.

Antrim...............................................1-17
Dublin...............................................0-19
ANTRIM boss Dinny Cahill told his players never to give up and that they didn't on Saturday past against Dublin in their own backyard in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Qualifiers. An injury time point from St Gall's man Karl Stewart stunned the Dubs as the visitors not only fought back from six points down to equalise but went one better and clinched the last-gasp victory.
There was no hiding Cahill's delight after the game.
“It was a tough one to win, " he said. "We knew we were up against a tough team and were delighted to get our noses in front right at the whistle."
He added: "We learned in the Carlow game that the game is never really over. We were eight points down against Carlow and we won it right on the finish line.
“Today we knew that if we could stay with Dublin and not let get the goal - and they had chances to get a goal - we would be there."
Antrim set the early pace by racing into a 1-3 to 0-2 lead, Karl McKeegan and Neil McManus getting them off the mark with points, before Tomás Brady and Oisín Gough somehow let Stewart's ball past them and PJ O'Connell raced on to it and beat Gary Maguire.
Liam Watson added an angled point, but Dublin rallied with scores from Liam Rushe, Lambert and Peadar Carton scoring three points to two Campbell frees.
They got a run of three scores through Alan McCrabbe, who sent over a point and a free, with the impressive Carton adding another to draw level.
Two McManus frees and points from Carton and McCrabbe saw the sides go in level, while Dublin came blazing out after the break and, led by McCrabbe and the impressive Lambert, they raced into a six-point lead.
But after a silky Lambert effort on 49 minutes, they sat back as Dinny Cahill's men took over and with Neil McManus accurate from the dead balls, they clawed their way back into the game, with Shane McNaughton levelling going into injury-time.
Liam Ryan did see a goal chance go wide, while Chris O'Connor had saved well from Paul Ryan with Dublin a point up. At 0-19 to 1-16, Declan O'Dwyer missed a chance to win it for Dublin in injury-time, but Antrim swept downfield and Brady failed to deal with a dropping ball allowing Stewart the opportunity to steal victory.
Could senior selector and former Antrim star Gregory O'Kane have been more delighted?
“Yes! Yes! Yes!" were his first words. "We are delighted to beat the Dubs particularly when we made the decision to play the game in Croke Park rather than a neutral venue. We felt the team were ready and they stood up and delivered."

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