Derry skipper Anthony Tohill (left) in action

The St Paul's stopper pulled off three first-class saves to deny Derry goals.

He thwarted Dermott Dougan early on in the first-half and then made two spectacular stops late in the second-half, from a point-blank Bradley volley and a powerful Diamond strike.

Antrim's best goal chance fell to their substitute Kevin Madden 10 minutes into the second half.

The forward, who is a gaelic football development officer in Antrim, should really have scored but somehow managed to side-foot his effort wide of the post from close-range.

With the score at 0-5 to 0-9 at the time, this was very much a pivotal moment in the match and the Saffrons never looked like rescuing the game thereafter.

Not pleased

Coleman's side started the match brightly with Paul McFlynn opening the scoring after only 40 seconds.

Bradley notched the first of his five points two minutes later, before Paddy Logan registered Antrim's first score in the fifth minute.

The Oak Leafers went in four points ahead at the break before Antrim began to come back into the game in the opening spell of the second half.

Kevin Brady and substitute Peter McCann scored points in what was their best spell of the game but then came that dreadful miss from Madden.

Brian White's men never looked like clawing it back after that and it soon became a question of how many Derry would score.

White will not be pleased with how his side seemed to give up the fight in the closing stages, relying on McGreevy's saves to keep the winning margin down to 10 points.