Antrim return to old habits in hammering
ANTRIM manager Kevin Ryan said he was perplexed by his side’s shocking performance as they failed to back up last week’s morale - boosting vi ctory over Laois.
The Antrim display in the rain at Cusack Park in Mullingar yesterday was more akin to the dreadful displays which saw them relegated in the League, as the feelgood factor from the Laois win was wiped out.
‘Everything going into it was so good. Everyone training all the week, very serious and absolutely flying and everything right up to the start. And I don’t know, I just cannot put a finger on it,’ he said.
‘I thought we had turned that corner and we had to an extent, everything was good and feeling good and everyone was very serious.
‘There was never a word of complacency or anything like it, it is just unexplainable how a lot of us didn’t show up,’ he added.
Another Ryan from Waterford was across the corridor digesting a second win of the Leinster SHC round robin campaign, as a great weekend for hurling in Westmeath was completed after their minors knocked Wexford out of the Championship on Saturday.
‘This is a huge weekend for Westmeath hurling. That was a great win for the minors and of course it was a boost to us going out. We referred to it in the hotel in the morning, that the minors had really put it up to us as a group,’ said Michael Ryan.
Antrim — who suffered an early blow when defender Aaron Graffin was stretchered off with a serious knee injury — looked like they would make a game of it when Eoghan Campbell and Paul Shiels hit points to haul Waterford back to make it 0-3 to 0-2 after 22 minutes.
But Westmeath, mastering the very wet conditions on a good surface, closed them down with Shane Power superb in the full-back line.
They got on top around the middle of the field where Cormac Boyle, Robbie Greville and Eoin Price won a lot of quality ball and with Niall O’Brien in good form up front, they had a winning formula. They struck seven unanswered points in a great nine-minute spell before Greville found O’Brien and he in turn set up Alan Devine for a fine goal to lead by 1-13 to 0-2 at the break.
Antrim never looked like getting the goal which might have set a comeback in motion and Westmeath continued to pick off points at ease which will send them in to their final pool match with neighbours Laois in great form.