Feeney finds relief from welcome win
Roscommon captain, Niamh Feeney, takes possession forward under the watchful eye of her Antrim counterpart, Ciara Brown, during Sunday afternoon's championship encounter at Woodmount. Picture: Michelle Hughes Walsh
The relief in Niamh Feeney’s voice was palpable. After such a positive start to the season, three losses on the bounce in big games wasn’t part of the script. Not that the captain ever lost faith, but she, like her team-mates, was craving to right the wrongs of recent weeks.
On Sunday in Woodmount, albeit the opposition was weak, that urge was finally nourished.
“It’s so frustrating when you’re giving it everything you have, and you’re not getting the results. You’re trying to do things right, everyone is giving 100 per cent, but it’s not going your way. So we’re happy to finally get that win and reach the quarter-finals.
“We’re just delighted, and to get such a big scoreline is a bonus. We’ve been waiting a while to get those goals. We’ve come away with a lot of points recently but we’ve been making those goal chances. We converted them out there, so we’re really happy with the performance,” she summarised in the aftermath of her side’s 5-11 to 0-4 championship triumph.
“Just to be making those goal chances is hugely important. We’ve been consistent at the back in terms of how we’ve been coming out with the ball.
“We knew that we had to work the ball in during the second half (against the wind), and I think we did that really well,” she highlighted.
Manager Ollie Lennon was singing from the same hymn sheet, praising his players for sticking with the plan and getting the win they deserved.
“It’s great to get back to winning ways, especially after last Sunday. We put so much effort into the game, and to come away from Wexford without anything was hugely disappointing. So it was important that we got the win today. If we didn’t, we knew that our season was over. We felt that we needed to put in a good performance. Certainly, we did that in the second half.
“Antrim were very unfortunate with their injuries, but we can only play what’s in front of us. But, overall, we’re quite happy. We’ll look at our own performance very closely, but we know that Antrim were short players,” he acknowledged.
When Antrim were running out of gas, Lennon was pleased that his side’s rediscovered their ruthless streak in front of goal.
“I think we did a lot of good things. We always try to find the person in the best position with the ball. We worked some good scores. We didn’t slacken off when we probably knew that the game was won. We still tried to do the right thing.
“We’ve lost the last three-in-a-row, three important games. All you want to do is win a game to get the confidence back. Hopefully that will happen with this result. You can’t beat winning games. It’s April since we won a game of any importance, so this is a big result for us,” he concluded.
