By Michael McMullan

ANTRIM’S promotion hopes are out of their own hands but they’ll need to beat Longford on Sunday in Cargin to give themselves a chance.

They’ll be relying on other teams to slip up in race to escape Division Four.

It will take character within the Saffron camp this week. After losing a game to Carlow which they enjoyed spells of dominance in, they shipped a second defeat against Tipperary.

There has also been the news of Patrick McBride and Conor Small stepping away from the panel.

Antrim will have to park that and zone in on getting a result this weekend. Longford were beaten by London at home before beating Waterford by a whisker.

Both teams will have eyes firmly on Sunday but Antrim’s home advantage is something they must lock in on.

Oisin Doherty, Eoghan McCabe and Patrick McAleer have chipped in with important scores. They’ll also need the leadership of Marc Jordan and those penetrating runs.

For all they got right against Carlow, they will have rued errors that led to two breakaway goals and the regret of not closing down the two-point threat.

A daunting championship opener against Derry is on the horizon but any momentum they must gather needs to come from Sunday.

Two McKenna Cup games against top sides pointed to their ability to organise themselves at the back. That’s why the goals Carlow ran though the middle will have stuck in the throat.

All of the talk of this game comes back to one thing – attitude. If there is a desire to turn the tables, then Antrim can throw everything at Sunday knowing they can get a result.

Anything less will leave the rest of the season a slog they won’t want. That’s why the inner drive is so important this week. The time is now.