O’Grady: we must sharpen up
But Limerick boss Donal O’Grady wasn’t getting carried away after a match that promised much, but became a non-event when Antrim had centre-forward Karl Stewart sent off in the 28th minute for a stamp on Brian Geary.
“We came up, we did the job. As Caesar said: “Veni, vidi, vici” and we’ll leave it at that,” smiled O’Grady.
However, he revealed how worried he was seeing his team being flat during the warm-up and blamed it on the humidity of the evening, the three and a half hour bus journey, the fact Limerick had easily beaten Antrim in the league and the fact that the match was on so late.
When a Neil McManus inspired Antrim led by 0-6 to 0-3 in the 19th minute, we looked set for an intriguing contest as Limerick struggled to settle in the tight confines of Parnell Park.
But when they abandoned their short game and fed young wing forward Declan Hannon from their puck outs, Limerick quickly made up lost ground. Once they had numerical advantage and the breeze in the second-half they powered clear.
Antrim’s Dinny Cahill cut a dejected figure after and said he’ll take time before deciding whether to commit again to the long haul from his home in Tipp up to train the Glens men.
“We are disappointed with the result and the scoreline wasn’t a true reflection on Antrim’s performance. After losing a player and the game Limerick play, having the extra man and their hand-passing game suited them,” he said.
“We are proud of our players, they fought hard in the first-half and took the game to Limerick and we were a bit unlucky and then the sending off didn’t help things.”
Limerick played themselves into a lot of trouble with a poor first touch in defence, but settled when Ardscoil Rís student Hannon began to dominate after Antrim had bossed most of the early aerial duels.
The sides were level at 0-7 in the 28th minute when Brian Geary made a form of a rugby tackle on Karl Stewart on the touchline, conceding a free to Antrim. But as the players fell, Stewart kicked the Limerick man and referee James Owens reached for the red card.
Timed alongside Hannon’s growing influence, the extra man allowed Limerick move up a gear and in the 32nd minute Hannon set up Niall Moran to drill an excellent goal and lead 1-10 to 0-8 at half-time.
Antrim had the gap down to three in the 48th minute but were unable to get the goal they needed with Mark O’Riordan, Brian Geary and David Maloney also prominent for Limerick.
David Breen scored an impressive solo goal in the 53rd minute and that killed off the Ulster men’s resistance with scores flowing afterwards and Richie McCarthy also finding the net in the 58th minute.
O’Grady said: “For the first 10 minutes after half time they came at us again and I suppose the defence weathered the storm and didn’t concede any goals which was important and once we got the great goal from David Breen the floodgates opened and it was target practice from then on, Antrim had shot their bolt,” summed up O’Grady.
“I learned a lot. I learned there were players using bad habits that I thought had been dispensed with three or four matches ago. Maybe we have to go back to the drawing board.
“I’m a stickler for fellas to do things properly — but I think technique is so important, you lose so many balls without proper technique and I was a bit aghast there to see some of our approach to the ball and our first touch was awful.”
Scorers for Limerick: D Hannon 0-8 (5fs), N Moran, R McCarthy 1-1 each, D Breen 1-0, S Tobin 0-3, M O’Riordan, J Ryan 0-2 each, T Condon, B Geary (65), G O’Mahony, D O’Grady, K Downes 0-1 each.
Scorers for Antrim: N McManus 0-8 (6fs), E McCloskey 0-2, D Hamill, C McCann 0-1 each.
Subs for Limerick: D Breen 1-0 for Downes (ht), P O’Brien for O’Grady (ht), T O’Brien for Moran (61), S Lucey for Geary (61), S Walsh for O’Meara (61).
Scorers for Antrim: B McFall for Scullion (45), C Carson for McCloskey (57), C Herron for McCrory (62).
Referee: J Owens, (Wexford)
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