O’Neill: Antrim know how to deal with pressure

By Shaun Casey

FOLLOWING the disappointment of a surprising defeat to Derry the last day out, Maria O’Neill says Antrim are keen to get back on track when they welcome Longford to Randalstown on Sunday afternoon.

The loss to their Ulster rivals has put the Saffrons under a bit of pressure with two games remaining. However, they can still they target a top-two finish in the five-team group to guarantee access to the All-Ireland semi-finals.

It’s been a hugely productive two seasons under Chris Scullion and Michael Devlin, having steered to Antrim to back-to-back promotions and Division Two football next year.

They have also won the Ulster Junior Championship two years running and reached last season’s All-Ireland Junior final. When it comes to dealing with the pressure of a big occasion, Antrim are well used to it.

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“I feel coming into this year’s Junior Championship, there was initially a lot of pressure on us,” said O’Neill, who scored 1-1 in that aforementioned Derry encounter.

“After making it to the final against Louth last year and having such a great season, we had such a winning streak going and everything was going so well – everyone probably expected that of us again this year.

“That’s probably what shocked people after the Derry game, but I feel like we’re used to the pressure and it’s just something you get used to. You can’t let it get in your head because at the end of the day, if you fumble, you’re out.

“There are really strong teams in the Junior Championship. We have Longford this week, we’ve played Offaly already, Sligo and a few others are on the other side so at this point, the pressure can’t make an impact.”

Surprise loss

After two championship clashes – a win over Offaly and that surprise loss to Derry – Antrim had a week’s break in round three. Moneyglass star O’Neill says they used that free time to not only recover from a heavy schedule, but to take the learnings from their most recent outing.

“We had a lot of things to reflect on after our loss to Derry,” O’Neill continued. “It obviously wasn’t the start we wanted to the championship, so we spent the week regathering as a group and seeing what went wrong, why it went wrong and how we’re going to fix it.

“I has been back-to-back games all season, so we had a few recovery sessions and came together as a group. Derry showed up on the day and we didn’t, but I think it’s maybe the wake-up call that we needed.

O’Neill continued: “There’s no better time for it to have happened then the Derry game and the weekend off really gave us the chance to reflect on what went wrong. In that sense the break definitely did come at a really good time.

“Now, it’s just about putting the changes into the place, and we can’t go into the Longford game making the same mistakes because it’s must-win if we want to make it to a semi-final. The break did us good but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”