McQuillan braced for tough away day trip

By Shaun Casey

ANTHONY McQuillan’s Dunloy side are braced for a tricky away day trip to Randlestown as they take on Tír na nÓg in the second round of the Antrim Football Championship, following their opening round win over St John’s.

Dunloy cantered to a comfortable 2-30 to 1-11 win in the end, on home turf, with a powerful second-half display opening up a considerable margin by the time the final whistle sounded, but McQuillan say they swiftly moved on from that victory.

With the Antrim Hurling Championship in full swing as well, the Dunloy players are mixing both codes, something they’ve grown used to doing over the years.

“It was a good win and a good second-half performance from the lads, but we’ve moved on from that game and it’s all about this weekend now against Randalstown,” said McQuillan ahead of the game.

“We had St John’s up first then the boys had to go and focus on the hurling then last week, we had Ballycastle last weekend and now we’ve had another week’s turnaround, and we have Randalstown on Saturday evening.

“We just take it game by game and see how we get on. “We’re used to it now, this is our third year at senior, and we had a
few years at intermediate level as well, trying to win it, so it’s just about managing the players and getting on with whatever is happening each week.”

Looking ahead to this weekend, McQuillan suggests that his side are under no illusions of the tough task they face in round two against
a Tír na nÓg side that pushed reigning champions Cargin last time out.

“We had a good win against St John’s but that’s our of our minds now because you never get an easy game away to Randalstown, they’re a good side,” he said..

“They ran Cargin close in the first round, they ran Cargin to six points, and they played well. They were six or seven up after 20 minutes but Cargin being Cargin, they were fit to reel them back in.”

McQuillan also expects to have a full deck to pick from on Saturday. “We have a clean bill of health since we started the championship.

“There’s a couple of boys out with long term injures, Conal Cunning and Paudie Martin, but other than that, everyone else seems to be fit and healthy at the minute.”