Antrim joint-manager Frank Fitzsimons was left to rue his side's slow start after their Ulster SFC preliminary round defeat to Fermanagh.

The Saffrons had to wait until the 23rd minute for their opening score and went into the break trailing by 0-2 to 0-9.

"We never turned up," Fitzsimons said of Antrim's first half performance in the Irish News.

"There's no point trying to gloss over it, we just didn't turn up in the first half. We were very poor and you can't play Ulster championship matches for 20 minutes and expect to win. We just have to give them a few days off and regroup and, hopefully, get a draw in the backdoor and get a win or two."

He continued: "Realistically, we're not going to win an Ulster title, but we're out of the championship earlier than we wanted.

"We would have liked to have won today, but it's one of those things and we're just going to have to regroup and keep them all together and we stayed and had a bit of a chat with the boys after.

"We have to give them a week off and let them go back to their clubs. Let everything settle down a bit and see how things go from there. We just have to stick together and get back at it."

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