Brian White reluctantly took up the reins in Antrim just over a year ago. In that time he has seen the county win a first All- Ireland B title, record a first championship win since 1982 and take Ulster favourites Derry to a replay. In the autumn, violence at the county final between Cargin and St Pauls resulted in suspensions which have devastated the panel facing into the new season.

I didn't agree to take on the manager's job initially. I said I'd look after them in last year's B championship and see how it went. We travelled to Carrick-on-Suir and beat Leitrim and I felt I could make something out of this. I always had the belief - a lot of people did - that we were underachieving. Now players were responding and I was enjoying myself.

At first the emphasis was on the tactical side of the game in the defensive area. We organised good-quality challenge games against Sligo and Galway. We spent a lot of time with the players and brought in outside coaches to vary things a bit: Eugene Young, Dessie Ryan, John McCloskey and Mark Barr. There was a concentration on defensive skills and shooting skills.

On the fitness front Harry Brennan introduced us to the "fast feet" stuff. It's a Nike concept which uses certain techniques to improve speed and acceleration. I think the Tippereray hurlers were the only other team using it. It worked for us. Commentators said that we had the fastest forwards in the Ulster championship.

Thinking back, I remember getting soaked during the Down match at Casement Park. There had been great weather the week before the match so at least the pitch was firm. The hailstones stayed on the surface. Everything went to plan until the last 10 minutes when we were continually under siege and couldn't get out of our own 45.

Down started going for goal early, which suited us because we were playing a packed defence in front of goal. Still they got in for a couple of shots but Sean McGreevy (goalkeeper) was having a fantastic game. They could have levelled it with points but to be honest I think we forced Down into making errors. There was pressure against Derry. We had won a first championship match in 18 years but the players pressured themselves and our own supporters had expectations. At the start Derry never let us play. They managed to drag us all over the place and we were seven points down at half-time. Other teams might have cringed but we were used to it. We needed a couple of breaks but the players knew they hadn't performed in the first half.

So I wasn't too surprised that we came back. I did spend a lot of time thinking "what if" about the free at the very end. Sheeny (McQuillan) hadn't trained for three weeks. He had an injection on the morning of the match to get him through the pain. If he hadn't had an injured leg, that kick would have landed out in the Andersonstown Road.

It wasn't just that kick. We had a player in possession 20 metres out when the ref blew up with hardly any injury-time played. We knew there was more because Joe Quinn was down with an injury for about two minutes. There was a chance but I wasn't that downhearted, I didn't feel it had gone from us because we'd only played for 20 or 25 minutes.

In the replay we gave as much as we could but we lacked the experience for that situation. That replay was our third championship match, the first time in 18 years we had more than one. Fatigue was a factor. We had gone as far as we could.

I was at the county final and knew there was always going to be repercussions over what happened. But I'd never have guessed the extent of them. The Thursday before I had finalised a panel of 22.

After the county final suspensions, I had only 10 left. It was back to square one, bringing in young fellas with no League experience. I'm optimistic about the second part of the League, hopeful that after the annual convention, that there'll be a mood to allow the board sort something out with the clubs.