The last time Antrim footballers beat Derry was - from memory - about a dozen or fourteen years ago. I was there, an away league match somewhere in south Derry, and we 'stole' the game with two late goals. That's about all I can remember.
That long gap between victories was ended today with a one point win over the Derry men in the opening round of the McKenna Cup. The match started like it might run away from the saffrons, Derry racing into a 5 point lead after 15 minutes. But as they say, goals win matches, and we scored 3 of them in the course of the game. There were flaws for sure, scorable frees which were dropped into the keepers hands, some very bad passes and one line ball sent straight over the line again. But there was also a determination to not let the game go and some of the returning players such as Michael Magill made an decent impact.
Paddy Cunningham was very effective, especially in the first half, while James Loughrey got through a tremendous volume of work. He put in a couple of inspirational tackles late on which helped stall an emerging Derry recovery.
Dara Edwards made an impact on his introduction after about 25 minutes and Michael McCann picked up where he left off last summer, his goal was especially well taken.
So in the last 5 competitve outings we have beaten Cavan, Donegal and now Derry. Hopefully the list of Ulster counties to be feared by Antrim is dwindling to zero.
This was the biggest crowd I have seen in Casement for a McKenna Cup match and hopefully that level of support will increase as we approach the all important National League.
A good start is a half the battle, today Antrim's footballers had a good start.
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