Andy McEntee has hailed the character shown by his Antrim team after they sealed a home Tailteann Cup quarter-final thanks to a seven-point win over Fermanagh in the Box-It Athletic Grounds last weekend.
The Saffrons needed only a draw to top Group Four ahead of their Ulster rivals, but late goals from Oisin Doherty and Ruairi McCann saw them progress to the knockout stage in fine style with three wins from three.
It has been an impressive upturn in fortunes for Antrim, who endured some tough defeats in the League before a nine-point loss to Armagh in the Ulster SFC preliminary round.
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Antrim briefly flirted with relegation from Division Three after letting leads slip against Down and Fermanagh while they were thumped 4-27 to 0-8 by Westmeath in round five.
When asked what has changed in recent weeks, McEntee replied: “We found a way to win, whereas games earlier in the season we found a way to lose.
“You have the experience of losing those games and that's what steels you for the future.
“If you've suffered at the hands of Down and Fermanagh, and we did suffer as they were hard defeats to take, but you have those in the memory bank and hopefully you learn a bit from them.
"It steels you a little bit as you can't buy experience in the shop, you have to gain it and most experiences you gain will be bad experiences - the ones you learn from most.”
Those experiences stood to the Saffrons on a baking hot day in Armagh City as Fermanagh hit 1-3 without reply on the restart after trailing 0-7 to 0-5 at half-time.
“We were slow out of the blocks at the start, went 4-1 down. But 4-1 down to 7-5 up (at half-time) was a 6-1 swing and when we inject pace into it we look a little more dangerous after being a bit ponderous at the start,” reflected McEntee.
“We went four down again at the start of the second half, but we talked a lot about character. “That was a hot day, we're in the next round regardless (if lost) and lads had loads of reasons to say 'not for me today', but there didn't do that.
“The subs we brought on, young 'CJ' (Conhuir Johnston) made a big difference. I have to mention Cormac McGettigan who was out on his feet, but turned over a kick-out over on the far side with his last act and that led to a score straight away. I think lads showed great character.
“Whatever about Division Four teams, to turn around and turnover Fermanagh, it was a fair achievement. We knew coming into it there was very little between us, and the scoreline probably flattered us a little bit.”
Antrim’s reward for topping the group is a home quarter-final against one of the winners from this weekend’s preliminary quarter-finals.
Should McEntee’s side win their next game, they will play in the Tailteann Cup semi-final at Croke Park later this month and the Antrim boss says the squad want to give their fans something to cheer about.
“They’ve been brilliant. Some people, your ego mightn’t allow you to admit the Tailteann Cup is the place we should be, but it is where we should be,” added the Meath native.
“That’s the level we’re at, at the moment. Our lads’ egos aren’t that big, they accepted that’s where we should be, but they also accepted we’ve a real chance of doing something in it.
"That’s the attitude they’ve brought to training and the last three matches.
"Obviously the next one’s going to be huge up in Corrigan, and I’d like to think the place will be buzzing. There’s such a real good GAA population in Antrim, I hope everybody gets behind this.
"That’s one of the things the lads want to change, they want to give Antrim supporters something to shout about. And I think in general, even though some games haven’t gone our way, we’ve given people something to be positive about.”
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