ULSTER JUNIOR CHAMPIONS 2021

Antrim Senior ladies crowned Ulster Champs, with an impressive win over their neighbours Derry.

Antrim 4-17
Derry 0-8

With the crowd building up in Davitt's Park before the 5pm throw in, the atmosphere was too, building in anticipation for the Ulster Junior Championship between neighbours, Antrim and Derry.

In the second encounter of the year so far, Antrim proved far too strong for Derry once again. It was somewhat, an anticlimax as Antrim ran away convincing winners on a 4-17 to 0-8 point scoreline.

This will be a performance the Derry team and management will be very disappointed with. They will be meeting Antrim again in the Junior All Ireland campaign and will have a lot of regrouping and post game analysis to do to rectify their errors.

Having said that, you can't take away from an outstanding Saffron performance.

Antrim made life very difficult for the Oakleafers and forced a lot of their errors with some lovely interceptions and clever defending both in defence and attack!

This saffron squad have today proved they have the quality within to go out and perform on the big stage and they now leave themselves in a good position going into the All Ireland group stage.

The first half got off to a slow enough start. Whilst Antrim opened the scoring within the first minute, it took seven minutes for Derry to respond. Both teams looked cagey and a little nervous with a few mistakes and wobbles from both, so the prediction of a tight affair looked accurate. However goals from Cathy Carey and Meabh McCurdy settled the ship and at the half way point the saffs went in 2-03 to 6 points ahead.

Whatever was said at half time within the the Antrim set up, worked absolute wonders. In a tight game, look no further than Cathy Carey. The Saffrons needed a boost, and of course, the longest serving Antrim player of all time was on hand to pull the strings in centre half forward. With Aine Tubridy and Aislinn McFarland making explosive support runs from half back, the Saffs soon started to take a hold on the game.

The return of Grainne McLaughlin to the half forward line was also a massive boost for Antrim. And with a blitz in the second half, Grainne landed a player of the match performance.

Goals from Caitlin Taggart and Therese Mellon sealed the deal for Antrim after a flurry of points.

Not much more can be said for a very comprehensive win for the Saffron ladies.

There could be a very successful Saffron summer ahead with this bunch!