Antrim were pushed all the way by a brave Carlow side in this afternoon's All-Ireland SHC qualifier at Casement Park.

Antrim 2-18
Carlow 3-12

This was a pulsating contest and for long periods it looked as if Carlow were going to cause a major surprise, but to their credit Antrim kept working away and were duly rewarded by the final whistle.

Carlow went into this match full of confidence having finally beaten Laois in competitive action last weekend. The win over the O'Moore County sees the pressure off Kevin Ryan's charges and they could freely express themselves here in Casement Park.

The Leinster side has been making strides on the pitch and they are set to benefit from their three years in the top flight. They have some excellent players in their ranks, some of who played very well today.

Antrim went into this match on the back of comfortable win over Down in the Ulster final, but it was the their performance against Offaly in the Leinster championship that made most people sit up and take notice of the Saffrons.

Before the game they were installed as favourites and the fact that they were at home played a significant part in that. A defeat here would have been a major setback for the Ulster side.

The qualifiers have afforded teams the opportunity of a second chance in the championship and how both these sides would love dearly to compile a run together.

Carlow got off to a great start when Craig Doyle got two chances to finish to the net and he duly obliged at the second attempt just after the four minute mark. Antrim hit back with points from Karl McKeegan, Karl Stewart and Shane McNaughton.

However, Carlow were looking very assured and in the 13th minute Doyle struck for his second goal of the match as the Barrowsiders brought the game to their opponents.

By the 29th minute, the score was 2-6 to 0-5 in favour of the Leinster side and at this stage it looked as if they were going to pull off another surprise in the qualifiers.

Antrim were living off scraps at this stage, but they stayed in touch from placed balls and just a minute before half time, a Neil McManus point left five points between the sides, which was the last score of the half, 2-6 to 0-7.

Kevin Ryan would have been the happier of the two managers at half time as Dinny Cahill had to rally his troops for the second 35 minutes or face elimination from this year's championship.

The first score of the second half came from the stick of McManus as Antrim hit their fifth consecutive point, while Carlow hadn't scored since the 26th minute of the match.

McNaughton hit his second point of the game in the third minute of the second half to reduce the gap to three points as Carlow lead by 2-6 to 0-9. However, against the run of play, Mark Brennan, who had been causing all sorts of problems for the Antrim rearguard set up Paudie Kehoe and he fired to the back of the net to restore a six-point lead.

Watson was fouled in the small parallelogram and the same player stood up to take the penalty and he blasted to the net to make it 3-6 to 1-9. Kehoe and McKeegan exchanged points and it was all to play for at this stage of the match.

PJ McConnell found time and space to rifle the ball into the Carlow match to leave just a point between the sides after Rogers had stretched the lead to four points.

The same Carlow player made it 3-9 to 2-10, but Antrim came back strong and by the last minute of normal time points from Stewart and McKeegan (2) made it 2-18 to 3-12 and its Antrim that march on to the next round. Tweet

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