McBride isn’t daunted by the All-Ireland champions

IT’S more than a home championship game for Antrim’s Patrick McBride. Saturday brings him back to his spiritual home. Corrigan Park. Stepping on the patch of grass that made him.

Having pulled on an Antrim jersey over 100 times, he knows about county football. He knows what it takes.

He is seated under the stairs in Armagh’s Market Theatre when the news filters through. It’s Ulster Championship launch night. Their date with the All-Ireland champions is 19 days away.

After all the debate, everything becomes final. Corrigan it is. It’s where McBride expected it to be. It had to be.

It’s 24 hours after Antrim’s relegation to Division Four was confirmed.

“There was no distraction around the venue because the league was so important,” McBride said.

It was a tough day in Newbridge. Relegation is final.

They needed relegated Leitrim to topple Sligo and they needed to take care of their own business against Kildare. Neither happened.

“That league was more important to us than the championship,” McBride said of their focus since the turn of the year.

Getting up the divisions is important. The fact they are facing the holders of Sam Maguire cements that.”

Getting out of Division Four is a series of battles for another time. Now everything is clear. The cloudy skies have dispersed.

“Now the importance is on the game,” he said. “We knew if it wasn’t Corrigan, it wouldn’t be going ahead.”

Having completed a masters in sports psychology, there is a qualified opinion about being an underdog. There is also the experience of coaching club teams with his brother-in-law and former Antrim player Gearoid Adams. There is also the benefit of over 100 appearances in Saffron.

“You have to look at things as a challenge,” he said. “Obviously, you have to be more realistic. We’re big underdogs. We just got relegated to Division Four and Armagh just won the All-Ireland.

“To win this match, you have to have the best day of your life, and every player has to have that and anyone who goes on.”

Everything must go to plan. It can’t be about going out not to lose. It has to be the other side of the narrative.

“You have to go out trying to win, wanting to achieve and looking at it as a challenge rather than a threat,” he said. “You would always hear people ask, would you try and keep a scoreline to a certain amount? I would never think like that.”

Andy McEntee isn’t thinking like that. McBride stresses the importance of everyone reading from the same hymn sheet this week. It’s an exciting challenge.

“For me, it’s not daunting at all,” he stressed. “It’s just to make sure every player feels the same.”

Before they run out on Saturday, they are fighting against another battle they can control. One they’ve been striving for, embrace the ‘C’ word. They need consistency.

McBride points to the consistency within games. He looks back 24 hours. Going six down against Kildare before Conor Stewart’s two-pointer had Antrim off the mark.

Five up at half-time. Then down by six. Back to three. Losing by 11.

“We need to sit down together and learn how to manage those periods where the game can get away from us,” he said.

Why did they go six down? That’s been Antrim’s mission in the pre championship window. Gone is the week-on-week league preparation that allows a look at what’s coming down the tracks next.

“There’s a lot of things you can do in three weeks compared to just recovering, training and being ready for the next game,” he said. “That’s one thing we definitely need to nail down.”

It’s the consistency within the group. And within the game. Managing the 70 minutes. If a team gets their purple patch, how do Antrim manage it better? A focus on themselves.

While they had a chance to survive relegation on the last day of the league, it was a tall order. The Antrim camp had checked out. They’d go to Kildare and aim for a win. They had no control over everything else. That’s why their defeat to Sligo hurt so much. The writing was on the wall.

“Even the training for the Kildare match, it took us 10 minutes to get back into the swing of things,” McBride said.

“We had to have a chat with ourselves. We had to play that match, so I think the relegation thing, it already happened last week (against Sligo).

“The first half was very promising. It shows that, if they play that again in three weeks, we could be a lot better. The relegation thing’s gone.”

That’s out of their heads. Saturday is about three things. Antrim. Armagh. Corrigan Park. Everything else will fall into place.

For McBride, it’s like any crunch game – he’ll strive for the best possible performance. McEntee will demand the same from everyone else.