McGurn hoping Saffrons can build on Laois win

“Let’s be brutally honest, it was a pretty dire game of football in the championship and I really hope that it is a better game on Sunday,” the Enniskillen man said.

The former Ireland rugby coach, who now lives in Antrim, would love to see a more free flowing game this weekend and judging by his comments it appears that Antrim could be coming to Fermanagh looking to be much more expansive than they were in the championship.

“Look, neither Fermanagh or Antrim are going to win the All Ireland this year, let’s be realistic so I think it would be a shame if the teams put everyone behind the ball and played really defensive. I think whatever team lost would wake up with regrets the next morning if they played like that.” Antrim came to Brewster Park with a defensive script in mind when they met Fermanagh in the championship, their manager, Frankie Fitzsimons admitting as much after the game, but it appears that their qualifier win against Laois may have shown the Saffrons a different path.

“I think what happened was the shackles came off for the Antrim lads. We were nine or ten points down at half time, in a qualifier away from home and we had no choice but to come out and have a real go and once we did we started to play well,” McGurn explained.

That defeat over Laois in Portlaoise has been the shock of the championship to date. Fermanagh went to the same venue last season and came up just short of getting the win, so what Antrim achieved is no mean feat and McGurn believes that the win over the Leinster men will give the Antrim players some real belief.

“Laois are a semi decent team and we beat them so that has to give the players confidence. It is nice to go back to training after a win like that and there is a great buzz in the squad at the minute and hopefully they can bottle the second half performance against Laois and bring it to Brewster Park this Sunday.” McGurn also revealed that drawing Fermanagh again might act as a motivating factor for some in the Antrim squad but he also believes that there are Fermanagh players who will be relishing the ‘rematch’ “We were not looking too far ahead and once we won we did not really mind who we got. But now the draw is made maybe for some of the Antrim players they will want to go out and prove a point. Prove that we are better than that because we were comprehensively beaten by Fermanagh the last day but then on the other hand I think there are Fermanagh players who will want to prove a point as I think some didn’t play very well themselves so it should be really interesting.” Antrim will be without a number of players for this game with three of their squad jetting off to America while almost every newspaper article written about the team since before the championship has alluded to the fact that a number of high profile players have left the squad for various reasons. McGurn though prefers to talk about things he and the management can control, namely the players in the squad.

“A lot has been made about the players who are not playing for Antrim but I prefer to concentrate on the guys who are there and who are out training and playing. And hopefully if the Laois victory shows them anything it is that they can compete and play and win. Don’t get me wrong Antrim are in division four because that is our level. You get what you deserve in sport. But they can be better and beating Laois was tangible proof of that, now we have to build on that.” McGurn and the rest of the Antrim management team won’t be travelling to Fermanagh with revenge on their agenda. They have far bigger priorities. Namely building on a terrific result in the last round and proving that the second half performance was not a flash in the pan.