Galway in another class
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Antrim 1-10 - Galway 6-21
When Antrim levelled this All Ireland Senior hurling championship first round qualifier at Casement Park on Saturday afternoon the results sequence between themselves and Galway in championship hurling looked somewhat askew.
In their previous nine meetings the Saffrons had only won once, back in 1943, when they won their All-Ireland quarter-final clash by a point.
Since then however it has been a tale of woe.
The biggest beating came in 1971 when Galway won by a massive 34 point margin with the best result, a 12 point defeat seven years ago.
In more recent times, 2005 and last year to be precise, 28 points and 25 were the Galway side's winning margins.
No wonder that the bookmakers had Antrim at even money with an 18 point start.
From being level, eight minutes before the interval, to trail by eight when the halt was called and eventually to lost by 26 made the statistics look much more realistic.
Of their nine defeats at this level of hurling this ranks their third biggest hammering, just two better than two years ago which I suppose represents some improvement.
However, it is one worse than last, and read from that what you will.
After a first half which showed a lot of commitment from the Saffrons they switched off totally in the second half.
Normally half time team talks motivate teams but on this occasion it had the completely opposite effect and from a side which looked prepared to compete and have a go they curled up and lay down in a corner.
The good sized crowd which turned up can only be bitterly disappointed and it won't take many more beatings of this magnitude to switch them off completely.
Joint managers McKinley and McNaughton have one more chance to salvage something when they take on Waterford in the second round of the qualifiers.
After that it is anyone's guess what lies ahead.
Antrim may have been four points down by the seventh minute but they looked in this game for the long haul.
Donal McNaughton got them away wit a point but it did not take very long for the talented Galway corner forward Joe Canning to make his presence felt.
Following scores from Alan Kerins and Cyril Donnellan, Canning knocked over three and it was 0-5 to 0-1 with seven minutes gone.
Karl McKeegan and Mickey Herron had points in the 12th minute only to see their illustrious opponents again put the pedal down and cruise to a 0-9 to 0-9 lead by the 15th minute.
Canning got one with Cyril Donnellan, Iarla Tannian and midfielder Adrian Cullinane all contributing.
A 15th point from Karl McKeegan saw Antrim continue to nip at their heels but when Damien Hayes made it 0-10 to 0-4 the inevitable looked like coming sooner rather than later.
Antrim showed some flare during the next 10 minutes, and with some flashes of brilliance, and a lot of determination, they pulled this came back from the brink.
