With two wins already under their belt, Antrim will be guaranteed at least one more outing after Sunday’s Group Four finale against Fermanagh.
The result at the Box-It Athletic Grounds will determine whether or not it will be in the quarter-final of the Tailteann Cup or a preliminary quarter-final tie.
Paddy McBride insists he doesn’t care about various permutations and the goal is a simple one from an Antrim perspective - they want to keep winning games.
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“If I was playing football against my wee nephew out the back garden, I’d want to win,” stated McBride.
“Any time you play for Antrim, you want to win. In every game you play, you want to win your personal battle.
“We haven’t thought about the permutations or what might happen elsewhere, we are just focused on winning the next game. There’s been no conversations about what might happen after that.
“We’re treating this as a must-win game - that’s our attitude at the minute.”
McBride knows topping the group and having a home quarter-final would be a massive advantage.
“It would be a big advantage because you don’t have to play an extra game and you’d have a two-week break,” added McBride.
“I know games are good, but that extra week gives you more time to focus on recovery knowing you are already in the quarter-final.
“The main objective is to keep winning - we want to win every game we play. We never looked at the group thinking we could afford to lose a game or anything like that.”
Antrim endured a difficult campaign in Division Three before suffering a heavy loss to Armagh in their Ulster SFC preliminary round tie in April.
However, Andy McEntee’s men recorded impressive wins over both Leitrim and Wexford to progress to the knockout stage of the Tailteann Cup.
McBride feels criticism of their showing against Armagh was a little over the top when put into context against the Orchard County's subsequent wins over other Division Three teams later in the provincial series.
“Armagh got to the Ulster Final and they beat Down and Cavan as well - they beat Down (10 points) by more than they beat us (nine points),” said McBride.
“We aren’t happy with that, not at all. We knew we didn’t play well against them. It was just one of those days.
“We were unhappy with how we played in terms of our energy and our work-ethic. We’ve cut loose and went at the two teams we’ve played so far.
“If you look at the League table and the Armagh game, you mightn’t think we’ve had that good of a year, but we’ve been playing some really exciting football.
“The results might not show it, but we’ve played really well in certain matches. We threw away wins against Down and Fermanagh in the League. This is a new team and we’ll learn from it.
“Against Fermanagh, Sean Quigley’s goal was a stroke of genius by him and that’s what he has. Fair play to Fermanagh for battling back from an eight-point deficit. It is down to us to manage the game better.
“I don't know if we'll be in that situation again - I think it will be a tight game. I hope we do find ourselves eight points up again because I think we’ll handle it better.”
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