In April last, Cavan ended a run of four consecutive first round defeats by making it through to the Ulster U21 FC final. Sadly, that's where the odyssey ended.

There's only so many times that you can be told 'hard luck, there's a next time' - there comes a day when you have to turn around and become the victor rather than the vanquished."
Football is a language that speaks more fluently than most and Cavan boss Terry Hyland has seldom found himself tongue-tied.
In the wake of his team's Ulster U21 final defeat last April to Donegal, Hyland's summation of the county's ongoing angst at under 21 level rings oh so true.
Cringingly, 2010 ordained that the fallow times would continue for Cavan at the mid-grade championship, leaving the county with just two provincial titles, in 1988 and '96, to its name.
Cavan's U21 starlets in 2010 were fancied to grab only the county's fourth Ulster title at any grade in 36 years after a sparkling opening round tie.
Tragically, the Cavan team who looked invincible in demolishing Down in the opening round went onto deteriorate to unconvincing in subsequent weeks.
The superlatives were doing the rounds at Kingspan/Breffni Park in late March as classy Cavan advanced to a semi-final meeting with Monaghan with a facile 3-14 to 1-8 win over visitors Down.
Cavan weren't flattered by their winning margin as they left the 2009 beaten All-Ireland finalists playing second fiddle throughout an amazingly lop-sided game.
Down scored in the first and second minutes through Paul McPolin and Paul Devlin (free) but in-between time were completely snuffed out by an exceptional team performance by the brillant blues.
With David Givney and Gearoid McKiernan dominant in midfield, Cavan's pacy forwards were gifted with an abundance of possession.
Cavan Gaels' speedsters Niall Smith and Conor McClarey ran Down ragged at the back while the visitors were left punchless up front by Cavan's glue-like defence.
Cavan were in turbo-charged mode early on and came roaring back after Down opened the scoring after just 35 seconds.
The blues were level within 90 seconds before Declan McKiernan latched onto a rebound off the underside of the bar to palm the ball to the Down net in the 3rd minute.
Down appeared shell-shocked by Cavan's power, pace and precision and by the end of the opening quarter trailed by 0-1 to 1-5.
Instead, Down never ever looked like getting their second wind and they were again floored when McClarey cheekily palmed the ball over the head of the advancing Down 'keeper in the 25th minute.
Down simply couldn't stem the Cavan tide and they went into the break facing a mountainous task and 0-2 to 2-7 in arrears.
On a perfect evening for football, the hosts showed the mark of champions thereafter by refusing to allow their opponents get a foothold in any sector of the field.
Down came more into the game in the early part of the second half but the visitors never looked like winning their game of catch-up.
Instead, Cavan rubbed further salt into their rivals' wounds in the third quarter with a Niall McDermott point steering Cavan into a 2-13 to 0-4 lead after 44 minutes.
The remainder of the game saw Cavan win pulling up as substitute Michael O'Reilly blasted the ball to the net on the hour mark to render Down's second major all but irrelevant.
Cavan (Ulster U21 first round v Down):
M Smith; P Carroll, R Dunne, D Tighe; D Graham, J McEnroe, T Reilly; G McKiernan (0-2), D Givney (0-2); N Smith, N McDermott (0-4, two frees), B Reilly (0-1); B Fitzpatrick, D McKiernan (1-3, one free), C McClarey (1-1).
Subs; B Murray (0-1) for J McEnroe (inj, 41); C Smith for N Smith (46); S Tierney for D McKiernan (52); M O'Reilly (1-0) for B Reilly (56)
Cavan's turbo-charged start in their subsequent semi-final joust with Monaghan seemed to suggest that those fans from the county who travelled to Brewster Park, Enniskillen were in for a facsimile of the Down game.
But, in the heel of the hunt, it took a majestic point from totemic midfielder David Givney in the 61st minute to seal a 1-10 to 1-9 win for Cavan.
The Mountnugent maestro's last gasp point brought to a conclusion a Cavan display which was marked by a tremendous opening period complemented by a dashing finish which was bookended by three unanswered points in the dregs of the game.
Cavan's late, late piece of escapology came after they showed remarkable resilience to recovere from a double-whammy on the three-quarter hour mark.
In front of around 2,000 fans at Brewster Park, Enniskillen, the winners-elect had centre-back James McEnroe sent-off before conceding a goal less than a minute later.
McEnroe walked for a second yellow card offence (45th min) but it was David Millar's goal for Monaghan seconds later that seemed destined to propel the Oriel county into the final.
Cavan conspired to make life hard for themselves after blitzing their way into a compelling 1-5 to 0-0 lead after 13 minutes.
Monaghan rallied though and Millar's goal catapulted them into the lead (1-9 to 1-7) for the first time in the match.
"We had a terrific start and were really on fire early on but it didn't look good for us after we had James sent off and let them in for the goal," Cavan boss Terry Hyland admitted after the game.
"It was a tremendous match and fair play to Monaghan because very few teams would have come back into the match the way they did.
"I thought our lads played some really fine football at times and then they showed a lot of character to come back in the final ten minutes and put the three points on the board that got us through in the end."
Cavan lacked the consistency of effort which hallmarked their hugely impressive quarter-final win over Down even if their opening quarter show was just as spellbinding as anything they had produced against the Mourne county.
A Conor McClarey goal after little more than 90 seconds saw Cavan hit the ground running after he game was 12 minutes late in starting due to the bus carrying the Monaghan camp being caught up in traffic en route to Enniskillen.
The lights remained stuck on green for the blues as they raced into an eight point lead but, incredibly, failed to score in the second quarter.
Kieran Hughes pointed in the 16th minute to break Monaghan's duck and four more points served to cut Cavan's lead to 1-5 to 0-5 at the interval.
A Declan McKiernan free in the 34th minute ended a 21 minute barren spell for Cavan but Monaghan had the momentum and Donal Hahessy and Daniel McNally both pointed in the run-up to Millar's precise finish.
Amazingly, Millar's mercurial touch was to be Monaghan's final score as Cavan finished with a flourish with unanswered points from Brendan Fitzpatrick, Robert Maloney-Derham and David Givney to put their opponents to the sword in exciting and dramatic fashion.
Cavan (U21 Ulster FC semi-final):
M Smith; P Carroll, R Dunne, D Tighe; T Reilly, J McEnroe, D Graham; D Givney (0-1), G McKiernan; N Smith, N McDermott (0-2, one free), B Reilly (0-1); B Fitzpatrick (0-2), D McKiernan (0-3, two frees), C McClarey (1-0).
Subs; O Minagh for P Carroll; R Maloney-Derham (0-1) for N Smith; N Smith for C McClarey.
Sadly Murphy's law prevailed in the Ulster final against Donegal with Young Player of the Year Michael Murphy playing a pivotal role as the Tir Chonaill side secured the title on a 2-8 to 0-7 scoreline on April 7th at Brewster Park.
Cavan, so reliant on their blinding pace, quickness of passing and movement, found themselves smothered by the intensity of Donegal's play.
The winners-elect left the space available to Cavan at a premium throughout as Donegal packed their defence on the tight, claustrophobic pitch.
Ultimately the aforementioned Murphy's class did most to work the oracle for the Jim McGuinness-trained side.
The Glenswilly giant scored his side's first goal after fetching high on the edge of the square (30th) before delivering the pass for his team's second goal scored by Dermot Molloy after Belturbet's Brendan Fitzpatrick was inexplicably pulled for a 'lift ball.'
Donegal led by the odd point in five at the end of the first quarter with Cavan arguably the better side at that juncture.
Donegal's blanket defence and huge workrate continued to make life hard for the blues though and when Murphy goaled, the writing was on the wall.
But Cavan started the second half well and the score of the match from Barry Reilly (Kingscourt) cut Donegal's lead to 1-5 to 0-4 after 41 minutes.
After 48 minutes, Cavan had cut their deficit to just two points and seemed to be suffused with self-belief and renewed ambition.
A point from Molloy made it 1-6 to 0-6 before 'Bud' was wronged and Murphy was exceptional in his finish all within 35 seconds.
Cavan were far from a busted flush and they showed courage right to the bitter end as they plotted a way out from a nightmare result.
The starburst scores just wouldn't come though for Cavan and for all their dynamism and honest endeavour, the young Blues were left gutted at the death.
At the final whistle, the buzz among the Cavan fans trudging out of Brewster Park had all the fizz of a wet lump of turf mined from Bloody Foreland.
Once again, gaels across Breffni-land were left to look through the prism of nostalgia for hope and sustenance.
Cavan (Ulster U21 FC final v Donegal);
Martin Smith; Paddy Carroll (0-1), Rory Dunne, Darragh Tighe; Daniel Graham, John McEnroe, Thomas Reilly; Gearoid McKiernan, David Givney; Niall Smith, Niall McDermott, Barry Reilly (0-4, two frees); Brendan Fitzpatrick (0-2), Declan McKiernan, Conor McClarey.
Subs; Oisin Minagh for Reilly (40); Robert Maloney-Derham for McClarey (40); Brendan Murray for Carroll (46). Tweet

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