Limerick lose out to Antrim in Very Camogie League:
By John Redington Limerick Leader Sport
“WE were outstanding in the first half but we need to soul-search where it went wrong after the break,” was manager John Lillis’s analysis of Limerick’s second round Division 1B Very National Camogie League which saw his side fall to a disappointing 2-17 to 1-11 defeat to Antrim in Rathkeale’s Mick Neville Park on Saturday.
Failure to make enough use of the wind saw Limerick trail at the break by a point and then falling well behind as the visitors shot 1-6 without reply inside eight minutes going into the final quarter.
The big difference between the sides was in finishing. Before a late flourish eased the pain on the scoreboard, all but two of Limerick’s ten scores up to then had come from Claire Keating, seven of them from placed balls.
Down at the other end of the field, Caitrín Dobbin and Áine Magill whacked up 2-11 between them, with all but three points of the haul coming from open play.
Without the injured Caoimhe Costello and Rebecca Delee, their two leading players of recent seasons, Limerick struggled to find consistency down the middle where Antrim’s solid presence gave them the buffer to ride out those periods where they were under pressure and then gave them the platform to launch their attacks.
Maybe the game might have taken a different course had the hosts not shot four early wides from distance rather than building the scoring space closer to the posts.