Tomas McCann says it is difficult to play at club grounds having played at Croke Park

ANTRIM forward Tomas McCann has admitted that he would dearly love to be playing at Casement Park, and that the Saffrons have found it difficult training and playing at club grounds.

Casement Park closed in 2014, as redevelopment work was expected to start that year. However, work stalled due to appeals against the plans, and since then the matter has been on go slow as the GAA try to put together a new proposal.

Yet for the Antrim players, they are just disappointed that they cannot get to play on the best pitch in the county.

And McCann is happy to speak about it despite it being a sensitive topic in the county, as there are still some who disagree with Ulster GAA’s desire to have a 38,000 capacity stadium.

“I have spoke about Casement before. It is one of them things as a player you do miss it. It’s natural, it is one of the best pitches I have played on so it is natural that you do miss it. 

“You obviously miss Casement. If you are used to playing in Casement, which the older players on the panel are, it’s not easy having to play your county games on a club ground.

“It’s one of them things that we had to knuckle down, go through it, get the wins, then the reward of doing that is getting to play in Croker.”

Antrim qualified for promotion out of division four this year, winning all but one of their league games.

Then in last weekend’s league final they lost to Louth. However, McCann said that the used the challenge of playing away from Casement as a tool to drive them on.

“It wasn’t that nice, the weather wasn’t the best. The pitches were heavy. 

“Even the training here (At the Dub) you were getting hailed on. But everyone was still piling in.

“We just had to get over it. We had to get the show on the road, we had to drive it on, we had to win this game, this game and this game, and we got to the final stage where we didn’t even need to win the last game.”

But what makes Casement so special, and why do players like McCann yearn to get back out onto the West Belfast surface?

“It’s the size (of Casement Park). At this time of year Casement would be firm on foot. 

“There would not be too  many pitches about that would be up to that standard during the winter. 

“When you were growing up you always loved of playing at Casement. You were always striving to play there when you were used to it. I have been playing in Casement since I was minor.