Wicklow fall short against Saffrons
WICKLOW 0-11 ANTRIM 0-20
WICKLOW were made to pay for wastefulness in front of posts, as well as a second-half Antrim scoring spree, as Eamonn Scallan’s men came up short in their national hurling league, on Sunday afternoon.
Scallan’s men put in a battling, spirited first-half performance of hurling to trail by just a point at the break, having gone nip-and-tuck with the same side that handed them an emphatic defeat during the Kehoe Cup at the end of 2019.
However, Wicklow were not able to turn that momentum accumulated in the opening period into points on the board, as they built up 16 wides and were punished for such inaccuracy by the lethal Neil McManus in the Antrim midfield.
At the end of 2019, Wicklow began their pre-season preparation with a trip to Abbotstown to play Antrim. On that occasion, an ill-prepared Garden panel were subject to a gruesome 5-27 to 2-10 defeat.
Sunday’s visit of the same Ulster county, this time to Arklow, represented a potential showcase of how far the team had come in the meantime, while also giving them a chance to kick-off their Division 2A campaign with a bang, having gained promotion by way of winning the Division 2B title in 2019.
Up until half-time, it looked as if that may be exactly what would happen, as Wicklow outfought their opponent’s all over the park. Eamonn Kearns opened the scoring with a point inside the first minute, before an Andy O’Brien free, which appeared to go between the posts, was ruled by the umpires as having gone wide.
Neil McManus would level matters from a set-piece, but Wicklow were still the side in the ascendancy. Jack Doyle and Andy O’Brien(65’)pushedWicklowout to a two-point advantage, before Antrim took advantage of sloppy distribution from puck-outs to take a 0-4 to 0-3 lead by the 15-minute mark.
Both teams would trade scores as the half progressed; Danny Staunton getting the pick of the bunch with an exquisite strike from the 65’ line. Wicklow continued to win the breaking ball in the upper third, however, and may have felt value for a half-time lead, only for inaccuracy to creep into their performance as the half wore on; seven coming in the opening period alone.
Antrim, and specifically Neil McManus, were having no such issues, as a late free from the Ruairi Óg clubman sent the Northerners into the interval with a slender 0-8 to 0-7 advantage.
Despite trailing at the break, Wicklow will have felt that they were in a strong position to push on in the second-half, turn the game around, and come away with the opening league win. Unfortunately,
whereas Antrim would go on to demonstrate their clinical nature in front of the posts, Wicklow would suffer from opposite fortunes which would ultimately cost them the two points.
The half-time introduction of Enda Donohue for Gavin Weir represented an attempt, on the part of Eamonn Scallan, to turn their battling first-half display into second-half scores. Instead, it would be the visitors who would make the more promising start.
Conor Johnston, brought in at half-time, put Antrim into a 0-9 to 0-7 lead, before further scores from Niall McKenna, Neil McManus (two frees), and Daniel McCloskey raced them into a six-point advantage.
Whereas Wicklow enjoyed plenty of success at the breakdown in the first half, Antrim had stemmed the tide and were started to do exactly that, themselves. Gerard Walsh came away with possession in such a scenario, before he laid the ball of for McCloskey to score.
Two more Neil McManus points later, and Antrim had gone from 0-8 to 0-7 in front at half-time, to 0-16 to 0-7 in front with just over 10 minutes gone in the second. Wicklow needed to make an urgent change if their luck was to change, and looked to do just that by bringing on James Cranley for the misfiring Andy O’Brien.
A change in direction in the forwards brought an immediate change in fortune, as Enda Donohue got his team’s first score of the half from a free, before Kearns got another shortly thereafter. However, Wicklow were still suffering from inconsistency when chances presented themselves. Donohue skewed a free wide, before the Carnew clubman put two further frees wide in the closing exchanges.
Added to wides from Cranley and Peter Keane, and Wicklow were guilty of striking 16 wides in total over the course of the 70 minutes; six of which coming from frees hit by the usually reliable Enda Donohue and Andy O’Brien.
While Wicklow were finding it difficult to put the ball between the posts, Antrim were having no such problems on the cut up Arklow turf. Gerard Walsh made it an eight-point game, before the irrepressible Neil McManus bagged the score of the day with a free from his own 45-metre line.
After Donohue closed the gap to seven with a pair of frees, Michael Bradley cancelled out the first with a point from out on the left-hand sideline, before that man McManus brought the proceedings to an end with his 10th free of the afternoon.
Wicklow will have a week to recover from Sunday’s disappointing loss and address their shortcomings, before they travel to Navan on Sunday, February 2, to play Meath, who came out on the wrong end of a 0-26 to 1-21 encounter in Offaly.
Wicklow: Conor McNally; Warren Kavanagh, Bryan Kearney, Martin O’Brien; Gary Byrne, Billy Cuddihy, Peter Keane; Eamonn Kearns, John Henderson;
Jack Doyle (for Christy Moorehouse), Eoin McCormack (for Gary Hughes), Daniel Staunton; Gavin Weir (for Enda Donohue), Andy O’Brien (for James Cranley), Pádraig Doyle.
Antrim: Ryan Elliot; Phelim Duffin, Ciaran Johnson, Stephen Rooney; Gerard Walsh, Paddy Burke, Matthew Donnelly (for Aodhan O’Brien); Neil McManus, Nicky McKeague (for Eoghan Campbell) James McNaughton, Niall McKenna (for Ronan Molloey), Ryan McCambridge (for Conor Johnston); Eoin O’Neill (for Michael Bradley), Donal Nugent, Daniel McCloskey.
Scorers: Wicklow: Enda Donohue (0-3f), Andy O’Brien (0-2; 0-1f; 0-1 65’), Eamonn Kearns (0-2), Jack Doyle (0-2), Daniel Staunton (0-1), Pádraig Doyle (0-1).
Antrim: Neil McManus (0-11; 0-10f), Daniel McCloskey (0-2), Gerard Walsh (0-2), Conor Johnston (0-1), Eoin O’Neill (0-1), James McNaughton (0-1), Michael Bradley (0-1), Niall McKenna (0-1).