Antrim will be playing defensively
WITH all respect to Antrim, this is the fixture we would have picked if given a choice prior to last Tuesday’s draw for the first round of the qualifiers.
This has more to do with the benefit of the home advantage than Antrim’s abilities.
As the odds were stacked against a home draw for us due to the various permutations even if we came out of the hat first, so this was the game we wanted.
Earlier in the year Antrim put the big dent in our ambitions for promotion when turning us over in Belfast by a point when we looked on course to go up.
This was a game we would prefer to forget about as we should have won if we had taken our chances, particularly from frees, missing numerous chances that normally would be taken.
Niall Carew since Tuesday will be continuously reminded of all that after re- loading the footage from that game onto his PC in preparation for next Saturday’s game.
Antrim were the first team in this year’s league campaign to play very defensively against us dropping numbers behind the ball and then breaking with pace on the counter attack.
We struggled badly in Belfast playing against this system in addition to the horrendous weather conditions which never suits our style of play.
Looking at the seven day forecast, next Saturday should be more suitable to our abilities and physique.
Antrim ended the league campaign relegated on scoring difference back to Division 4 as they scored less than every team in the Country during the national league with the exception of Cavan in Division 1 and Fermanagh in Division 3.
This together with the thumping they got off Donegal last time out translates no doubt to another defensive set up, with large numbers behind the ball.
Sligo will need to plan for this as in the two games in the league that we were allowed play we got results, but struggled when teams set up defensively.
This game represents a great opportunity to get momentum moving forward again after what I considered a very creditable performance against Mayo.
In order to do so we cannot play the way we did in Belfast allowing Antrim to dictate terms, when forcing us backwards and down the wings cutting out the middle channel.
We need to go straight at them at every opportunity and control the tempo of the game.
We know that they will try to slow us down breaking from the back, so we have to make sure not to be bringing balls into contact but keep the ball moving supporting the man in possession until we get to the scoring zone.
Our supply and quality of ball into the inside line up in Belfast was very poor and this needs to be our focus of improvement.
We must make sure we don’t give away frees in the scoring zone as CJ McGourty has the ability to punish us every time.
Ironically Antrim may be without one of their best players Mathew Fitzpatrick not because of suspension as he got his 48 week holiday overturned with the help of Joe Brolly but for the shoulder injury he sustained in the Donegal game that he got the reprieve to play in.
All in all, Sligo will be favourites for this game a tag we sometimes struggle to cope with.
However we need to be focussed and make sure we do the job and be in the next round of the qualifiers, and to steal a quote from the Ireland assistant manager ‘ we aren’t good enough to be complacent in a game like this’.
In the other big action last weekend, Galway for the second year in a row directed Mayo towards the more journeyed route of the qualifiers.
In a game played in atrocious conditions it was Galway that handled the elements better and hung on bravely at the end with Mayo pushing for an equaliser.
Mayo were obviously hampered when playing two thirds of the game with fourteen players after Keith Higgins straight red.
They will point to this in their post- mortem however I felt Mayo are well off the pace of the closing stages of the all- Ireland last year.
They look a very tired team with no energy. You would normally expect players like Lee Keegan to break from the back and try to inject purpose into their play but it was totally absent and I can’t see them having the same year as last year. However, we could be talking more about them in a couple of weeks if we get over this weekend and draw them in the next round of the qualifiers, which if the case, by rule would be back in MacHale Park, but let’s get over Antrim first.
We need to go straight at them at every opportunity and control the tempo of the game. We know that they will try to slow us down breaking from the back.