Antrim's Walsh Cup opener against Westmeath was eventually taken by the Ulstermen on a surprise scoreline of 1-18 to 0-12, but the highlight of the fixture in Kinnegad was an extraordinary save by the Antrim goalkeeper.
1-3 (0-3fs) from Ciaran Clark and 0-7 (0-4fs) from Allan Devine put Antrim in control of a contest in which Westmeath had been favoured, but the Saffrons' clean sheet was only kept intact by some remarkable goalkeeping by Chrissy O'Connell as Westmeath knocked on the door.
Liam Varley cut inside for Westmeath an unleashed a rasping shot back across the Antrim goal, only for O'Connell to react like a DC Comics mutant and deflect the ball wide of the right-hand post.
Thankfully, the good folks running the Antrim GAA Twitter account caught the incident on camera.
Great save by @chrissyoc1 today v @westmeath_gaa #WalshCup pic.twitter.com/gn7IXrP5Sc
— Antrim GAA (@AontroimGAA) January 8, 2017
What a stop that is, and a fine victory for Antrim to boot.
