Limerick 3-22
Antrim 0-12

Limerick scored a 19-point victory over Antrim to move into the last eight of the All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals this evening at Parnell Park.

After an even opening, the Treaty County pulled away from their Ulster opponents once Niall Moran goal hit the net late in the first-half.

The Saffron managed to narrow the difference down to 1-11 to 0-11 in the early stages of the resumption, but when Richie McCarthy and David Breen fired in goals number two and three for the Shannonsiders there was simply no coming back for the underdogs in the capital.

Andy McCloskey boomed over the first score for Antrim and their lead was soon doubled when talisman Neil McManus registered his first over from a free.

Declan Hannon posted Limerick's response at the other end, but an array of Saffron attacks yielded more frees for McManus to puck over and it helped the Ulster champions into a three-point advantage.

However, in Hannon Limerick had a real gem up front and three unanswered points from the teenager levelled the sides at 0-7 each after 18 minutes.

Soon afterwards Antrim were dealt a severe blow when Karl Stewart was red-carded for a dangerous tackle on Brian Geary and the Saffrons were reduced to 14 men. The incident forced Dinny Cahill to shuffle his deck and in doing do it seemed to offer Limerick an advantage which they seized upon.

Another Hannon point was backed up by the game's first goal from Moran, who coolly snuck in past the Antrim defence and buried a devastating finish to the back of the net.

Limerick kept their foot on the throttle with a Sean Tobin point and it meant that Antrim went in at the break trailing by five points, despite McManus accumulating six first-half points.

Darren Hamilton pointed early on in the restart to offer the northerners some hope, but two more Tobin points either side of McManus grabbing his seventh made things bleak.

They were to get even bleaker though, as Donal O'Grady's team cut loose with goals from McCarthy and Breen which all but killed off the game as a contest.

McManus did bring Antrim's tally up to 0-12, but Limerick went on to dominate further and increased their margin of victory substantially as Tobin and Hannon got in some shooting practise ahead of a comfortably secured All-Ireland quarter-final. Tweet

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