Stephen McAfee will be happy if Antrim can "keep it respectable" against Clare in tomorrow's All-Ireland U21 HC semi-final.

The clash at Thurles is a repeat of last year's All-Ireland final, which the Banner County won emphatically to claim their second successive national title in this grade, and McAfee accepts that realistically the Glensmen will not be reversing that result this weekend:

"We know what we are going to face, and we are going down to do the best we can against an exceptional team that would probably beat the majority of senior teams," he says in The Irish Independent.

"Clare are just so free-flowing, with great movement and work rate as well. They are well-drilled, fantastic players, incredible. When those players all work for the team they are very hard to stop.

"As long as we keep it respectable, and give a better performance than we had last year in the final, then we'll see what happens."

Antrim were also rank outsiders travelling to Semple Stadium for last year's semi-final against Wexford - which they won against all odds...

"It was just very surreal. None of the boys had even a thought in their mind about winning the game on the way down in the bus," says McAfee. "It was just laughing and banter and a bit of craic. Then, halfway through the game we knew Wexford were having an off-day, and that they were there for the taking.

"The last five, ten minutes they tried to throw the kitchen sink at us but at that stage we were holding on to our narrow lead. Had they played at all in that second half they probably would have caught up with us but we just managed to hang on.

"The final maybe caught guys with a lot of nerves. We were actually very tight score-wise for the first ten minutes, but Clare just got another gear after that, and in the space of 15-20 minutes they just completely eclipsed us.

"Okay, we got to the final and got beat by 20-plus points, but it's an experience that me and the boys had, and one which we will never forget. There's nobody else in Ulster can say they played in an U21 All-Ireland final, so that's something."

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