In 2008, Hyland and his team had impressed when they pushed Mick Deegan's Dublin on their Leinster debut. With no Ulster competition to compete in, Cavan moved south east and almost shocked the capital men, but a comeback from the hosts at Parnell Park saw them ground out a win that would eventually see them go on to record provincial and All-Ireland glory.
The performance that day gave the county an impetus to have another crack at their adopted province, and after more positive displays against Meath (twice), Leitrim and Roscommon; Cavan headed for Dundalk on May 28 confident of gaining a result with the talented group of players they had in their panel.
The likes of Keith Fannin and John Tierney were the ones that boasted experience, while Tomas O'Reilly, Kevin Brady and David Givney provided the youth blend in the team.
It was Givney who had handed Cavan the perfect start at the Geraldines club grounds in Louth, netting two fine goals in the opening four minutes that had the visitors off to a wonder start.
The Wee men hit back with points from Hugh McGinn and Eamon Carroll, but Tierney - who had jetted in from England that morning to play the game - pegged them back with a well struck point from the distance.
The Knockbride man struck his second moments later to move Cavan into a five-point lead on the quarter, but the next 15 minutes saw Eamon McEneaney's team dominate as 1-4 flew under and over Darren Murphy's crossbar to give the home side a 1-7 to 2-2 advantage to work with in the second-half.
Ten seconds into the restart and Givney had devastated Louth's defence again when he collected his third long ball in the square, turned and buried a superb finish past 'keeper Sean O'Connor to put Cavan back in front once more.
However, that was as good as it got for the Breffni outfit as Louth conquered for the majority of the second-half afterwards, with only points from Tierney and Kevin Brady halting the assault for so long, as Louth ran-out 3-15 to 3-5 winners with a late flurry of scores to progress towards to the next round of the Leinster junior grade.
Although disappointed with the defeat, Hyland wouldn't fault the effort of his team on the day, whose average age was around the 24 mark but did admit that they would have to raise the bar if they wanted to compete at the same level as their opponents next year.
"We need to take it on to a different level," said the Lacken clubman.
"The average age of our team was 23 or 24 and we were looking at development, where as Louth are probably aiming more to win a Leinster title."

Cavan (Leinster JFC v Louth): Darren Murphy; Padraig Cahill, Eoin Smith, Keith Fannin; Tomas O'Reilly, Johnny Higgins, Enda McCormack; Donal Thomas, Sean Maguire; Kevin Brady (0-2), John Tierney (0-3), Niall McDermott; Colm Reilly, David Givney (3-0), Anton Reilly. Subs: Patrick Carroll, Niall Madden, Gearoid McKiernan. Tweet

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