Antrim 1-19 Dublin 1-20: 'Utter disappointment' - Darren Gleeson on Dublin loss

Antrim's Ryan McGarry is dejected at full-time as his side suffered their second successive league defeat

Antrim hurling boss Darren Gleeson expressed his "utter disappointment" at his side's last-gasp defeat by Dublin at Corrigan Park.

A late goal from Sean Gallagher helped Dublin snatch a narrow 1-20 to 1-19 win in Belfast.

Antrim are now winless in their opening two Division 1B games, following last weekend's heavy loss against Limerick.

"We didn't get what we deserved out of it," he said.

"There'll be be positives taken out of it in the middle of the week, but now, at this point in time, just utter disappointment."

Dublin started brightly in west Belfast, but Conal Cunning kept the Saffrons in touch with a first-half goal.

The away side led at half-time, but after a fine second half display, Antrim held a one point lead going into the final stages.

However, Saffron goalkeeper Tiernan Smyth fumbled a dropping shot from Gallagher into his own net and Dublin took the late win.

Gleeson refused to blame Smyth for the loss and instead pointed to a catalogue of errors in the build-up to the goal.

"There is the obvious mistake there at the end that everyone will focus in on, but there are a couple of mistakes in the lead up to it; how we tackled and a ball before that should've went dead," he explained.

"That's Tiernan's third inter-county start in goals. He's outfield player with his club.

"He is learning and it's a harsh learning place for Tiernan, but we'll get him behind him and make sure he gets loads more of opportunities to collect balls like that.

"He's played against the All-Ireland champions last week, he conceded one goal, he made two or three great saves."

Gleeson continued: "We're trying to bring a different dynamic with the modern goalkeeper approach and he's really bought into that. He's put his hand up to do that.

"You have to be brave to play this game and to say, 'I want to play it', so he will learn from the mistake."

'Little errors' costing Antrim

Conal Cunning managed 1-10 for Antrim on Sunday, but couldn't prevent them slipping to defeat

Gleeson was proud of Antrim's second half display, but lamented their lack of ruthlessness in the final third, which he also believes cost his side.

"I thought we defended really well, we set up really well. The energy and work rate was there. The plays that we'd work on came off.

"We had our chances, we had a goal chance, that should have been taken, a couple of frees in front of the goals, a couple of bad decisions.

"One or two other things that went wrong, that's been the trend. It's our own little errors and you get really tested against the top teams."

The result leaves Antrim fifth in the table and Gleeson concedes they must pick up points in their next two games against Galway and Westmeath to avoid relegation.

"It would have been lovely to get to two points and then having three more games to try and progress ourselves.

"Now, it becomes trying to get something out of the next two weeks. We have to get the boys boosted and get something out of those games."