Gerard Walsh hadn't played in a competitive hurling game since a county quarter-final last September, but he needed no time to get up to speed in Saturday's win over Wexford.

The O'Donovan Rossa man was in superb form, winning rucks, snuffing out danger, bursting out of defence and lashing over three points from deep before he sent a spectacular line ball between the posts to put Antrim back in front in stoppage time.

Wexford's Lee Chin may have collected the man-of-the-match award, but he had plenty of competition for that accolade with Walsh leading the charge.

His coolness to stand over that line ball and execute it to perforation summed up his day when all in saffron were glad to have him back.

"I thought I'd hit enough wides so one had to go over," said the wing-back as he was mobbed by young fans at the final whistle.

"I just gave it a go and thankfully it went over, but there are plenty of lads who could have scored it as there's a high skill level within the team."

Walsh had missed the Allianz League as he had treatment on a knee injury picked up last year and the Leinster opener in Kilkenny came a little too soon.

Considering the length of time out, he could have been forgiven for needing time to settle back in, but that was not the case as he announced his return with an early score to give the Saffrons their first lead of the day and then closed it out by putting them back in front with time almost up.

"It's been a long time out," he agreed.

"I had a small procedure on my knee and a few other issues, so I am happy to be back on the field and delighted to represent the 44 lads we have and the backroom team extended onto that. We have a real good group, so I'm delighted today we were able to show ourselves as we didn't do it the last day.

"You aren't allowed to be rusty in the Leinster Championship as everyone is flying and putting the work in.

"People probably thought there was a bit of rust the last day, but it was just a few things we didn't execute very well. We just reassessed and got back at it."

The last day was the chastening experience against the Cats, but Antrim bounced back in spectacular fashion with a superb display to stun the Slaneysiders.

From despair to delight, the victory will put a spring in the step of Antrim Gaels heading into the Dublin game next weekend, but the job is far from done.

Two games - or "goes at the claw machine" as Walsh described it - are down and two points on the board. The ambition is to advance into the knockout phase in at least third place in Leinster and to do that, they will likely need two wins from their next three games.

Dublin will now be the focus and just like the Kilkenny game, the Wexford performance will be parked as they reset to go again at Parnell Park on Saturday week.

"The lads (management) have been telling us to do the same thing over the past five years," he explained.

"We didn't do them or execute it very well the last day but today we did. I really don't think there's much else to it.

"This will be quickly forgotten about - the lads are probably forgetting about it already.

"We've another week of tough training so we'll go hard at it again on Tuesday night to reassess and hopefully bring a similar performance to Dublin.

"There was plenty that went wrong there today as well and some that went right, so we'll look to put as many wrongs right as possible. We'll be assessed at the end of this championship, not after the second group game."