The Antrim players do not take too kindly to what they call the media's hang-up, associating the present team with two decades of failure in the Ulster championship.

Star midfielder Sheeny McQuillan wished to put the record straight on behalf of the panel. "What people will have to understand about us is that we are the new Antrim. This is not the team that has lost for 18 years. We have been together for eight months. It's not us. Once you get to know us you'll find out how good we are in the future."

"We only played to 80 per cent of our potential against Down. We showed on that occasion what we can do in half a match. Maybe we need to get more consistency but we are a young team learning all the time.

Antrim manager Brian White said: "We didn't finish when we should have done so. The goals were always there for us, we just needed the opportunities to take them. We created those opportunities, Derry didn't give them to us."

"We were lucky to get out of a tough game," was how Derry manager Eamonn Coleman put it on behalf of his relieved side. "I don't know what really happened, maybe we just relaxed and let them back into it"

Coleman was adamant the introduction of Kevin Madden for Antrim "had nothing to do with it, it didn't make any difference". Commenting on the bookmakers ridiculous odds in laying Derry 1 to 10, Coleman said it will probably be the other way around the next day.

Madden said: "I think the fact that everyone writes us off is a spur in itself for us."