By Michael McMullan

LOUGHGIEL manager Shane McMahon says Sunday’s Antrim semi-final showdown with Dunloy is a “massive step up” but hopes his charges can bring the same intensity to battle.

The Shamrocks have lost three finals since the Volunteer Cup wintered with them in 2016.

Captain Tiernan Coyle was a member of that team but misses out this weekend, having also sat out the quarter-final win over Ballycastle.

Aside from a few knocks that should clear up, there are no major injury concerns.

“Tiernan’s still under suspension,” McMahon said, “He’s the only one really out but he’s a big miss. He’s a massive player for us with the experience he brings.”

Loughgiel were pipped to the league title by Rossa but were seconds away from topping their championship group.

Two Sean McAfee goals prised a Cushendall victory from the jaws of defeat in the final group game.

Missing out on an automatic path to the semi-final, their win over Ballycastle shot them to the last four and a clash with their age-old rivals.

“Dunloy, they’ve been the standard-bearers, themselves and Cushendall, over the last 10 years,” McMahon said.

“We know it’s going to be a massive game and a massive step up for our boys. We just hope that we can do what we have been doing an all year, we’ll try to bring the same work-rate intensity to it and see where it takes us.”

A combined 1-6 from Seaan and Nigel Elliott helped Dunloy to victory over Loughgiel at the same stage last year.

They were on the wrong end of a 1-20 to 1-19 scoreline against Cushendall the previous year.

Aside from Coyle and James McNaughton, it’s a youthful Loughgiel side with players coming off their recent minor winning teams. Add in the experience of Mageean Cup hurling and there are young players with experience of success.

With up to a dozen players on Antrim senior and u-20 duty, McMahon and his management team had to juggle the senior team with having a second team in Division Two.

It was a venture to replace reserve hurling that hadn’t provided enough competitive games to bring their youngsters to the boil.

“It is a great standard of hurling,” he said. “We got a lot of fellas a lot of good game time and they benefited from it.

“We had seven or eight minors who were eligible to play in it, whereas the year before, there were only two minors who were in their last year of minor who were eligible to play.”

As the saying goes, everyone has a plan until they are punched in the mouth. The championship defeat to Cushendall ticks that box.

With three minutes of normal time to go, Loughgiel led the champions by seven points. Enter McAfee with two goals and the ‘Dall found a way to win.

“We were in a good situation and just have to take the lessons from that game,” McMahon said.

“There was a lot of outside noise was going on about some of the decisions that were made. That’s nothing to do with us.

“We have no control over things like that. It’s really up to us to close out the game and finish the game.

“A young team doesn’t always do that, a young and inexperienced team has to learn to do that so hopefully that will be the lessons we’ll be taking forward.”