'We're going to have to learn and learn quickly'

GAELIC GAMES:ALL OF those promotions for the onset of the championship – sunshine, warm and expectant supporters, passion and excitement – perennially run the risk of being reported to the Advertising Standards Authority because of matches like yesterday's Ulster preliminary round.

For Jim McGuinness, the aesthetics of the occasion weren’t a pressing concern considering the county had lost its first championship outing at home for the past three year. “It’s championship football, there were nerves there,” he said afterwards. “The main thing is we’ve won the match and we’re in the first round proper and we have a month to prepare to adjust our game plan and make ourselves better in a few areas that will be the focus for us now.

“Definitely important – three years on the bounce we were beaten at home we had to set that record straight as well. That was encouraging. There were a number of things we would be happy with but in the last third we were lacking composure and lacking composure putting the ball between the sticks. If we’re going to progress in the Ulster championship we’re going to have to learn and learn quickly.”

The aesthetics did matter to Antrim manager Liam Bradley, who in the lead-up to the match had described his opponents’ style as “puke football”. “If I had paid in to watch that I wouldn’t go to it, plain and simple because it was brutal,” he said. “But that’s the way the game is going . . . unless they bring in a rule change that’s the way it’s going to be for years to come.”

Asked had he not fallen in with the hosts’ preferred approach, Bradley was unrepentant. “Do you think for one minute I was going to come down here and get beat by 15 or 20 points? No way, so I wasn’t. Everybody talked about this great Donegal attack – Murphy, McFadden, Molloy – what did they score today?

“Justin Crozier has Molloy in his pocket, Ricky Johnston held Murphy scoreless from play, I think he got three frees and a lot of them were dubious frees. We thought Maurice (Deegan, referee) was a wee bit harsh on us at times and I thought we should have got a few frees we didn’t get. That’s the difference between the teams: the goal at the end of it just put a gloss on it because there was nothing between those two sides.”

McGuinness was asked about the talented replacement, Paddy McBrearty who had played in yesterday’s minor match before being brought on for the seniors in the second half. “I suppose he’s a very, very talented player,” said McGuinness. “He’s 17 years of age but he’s very strong – 14 stone and six foot one and very, very fast. So from the point of view of the physical stakes we weren’t taking a chance with him. He’s a lot stronger than some of the players we have at the moment.”