By Shaun Casey

ANTRIM host Galway on Saturday afternoon in the Centra National Camogie League at Cushendun and Saffron manager Elaine Dowds expects the All-Ireland champions to bring a full-strength squad up north.

The Connacht side lost their opening two games but welcomed some star names back to the fold last weekend to record their first win of the campaign, overcoming Tipperary with four points to spare.

The Saffrons recorded an eye-catching round two victory over Cork, splitting defeats to both Tipperary and Waterford, leaving them tied on three points with Galway, Cork and Tipperary. They are bracing themselves for a major battle in round four.

“The league has been weird this year, we’ve had the All-Ireland finalists from last year, Cork and Galway, both losing their first two games, but the panic has maybe started to set in and their pulling out the big guns now,” said Dowds.

“That’s probably to our detriment because if Galway are fielding a stronger team, it works against us but at the end of the day, we’re going to give it the best we can and we’re just trying to be competitive.

“We’re playing the All-Ireland champions who are starting to find their feet but coming into the league, everyone would have targeted us, and we throw the cat among the pigeons with the Cork game.

“With Galway only having one win so far, they won’t be coming up here to be complacent or put out a second-string team, but we know what we’re up against and we’ll throw everything at it and see how things work out.”

On the possibility of relegation from Division 1A, Dowds continued: “Getting that win over Cork has given us a bit of momentum.

“I’ll take a 10-point defeat to Waterford, which it was last weekend, when you consider the last time we played them it was about 25 points, so 10 points isn’t anything to be ashamed of.

“We have been competitive and we’re improving. The girls are making progression in their performances and that helps to build a wee bit of belief.”

Antrim welcomed Roisin McCormick and Katie McKillop back into action last Saturday at Ballymena, with both coming off the bench during the half-time break. Dowds, who also takes the Antrim u-23 side, is happy with where her squad is at the minute.

“We actually went to Dublin on Sunday with the u-23s and there were seven of the u-23s that started against Waterford on Saturday so it’s just about managing that, taking some of them off at half time and in the second half,” she explained.

“We had Roisin McCormick and Katie McKillop back into the squad as well so I would say this week has been tough enough. We had the gym on Monday night and training on Tuesday so that’s four days in a row.

“But everybody is enjoying it. We had a few players out at the start of the year with injuries and they’re gradually coming back into things, so we have good numbers to work with.”