Out of the Blues!
November 27, 2011It's not every year that your county wins an Ulster title, but two in one year issued patient Cavan supporters with a long-awaited message that something right is being done in the county's football fraternity - at least at underage level anyway.
On July 17, 2011, Cavan minors put the icing on the cake for a county that had been starved of underage success for too long, prior to their Under 21 triumph over Tyrone, when they put a fancied Armagh side to the sword at St Tiernach's Park in Clones, from where so many young Breffni heroes emerged; none more so than out of the defence which held the Orchard lads completely scoreless in the second-half to make sure of a sixth Ulster MFC crown.
Ironically, the result would be a reversal of the teams' previous meeting in late March, when Armagh come away with a five-point victory from the Ulster Minor Football League opener, which, incidentally, would go down as the first competitive game of 2011 for the new management duo of Gary Donohoe and Dermot McCabe. When sides met again just four months later, the stakes were much higher and it was Cavan that delivered.
Rewind back to late 2010 and the decision of the county board to appoint the dynamic Gowna duo to succeed Mickey Graham, who had been unlucky not to gain silverware during his term. The negative spectrum had pointed to the fact that neither Donohoe nor McCabe had management experience at inter-county level and believed that there were candidates more suitable for the post.
However, the board stuck to their guns and come the New Year a new regime would be putting the county's top young players through their paces in the form of stern training sessions, trials and challenge games. The objective was to blend talent in with the physically strong. Strength and height were two key ingredients that Cavan sorely missed when it came to mixing it with Ulster's top dogs and come the summer Donohoe and McCabe would make sure that their team wouldn't be found wanting in either department.
The Ulster Minor Football League was where they pair would put their players to the test and they couldn't have asked for a tougher opener than having to travel to take on Armagh at the end of March. Despite a brave showing in the tough conditions, the visitors would finish on the wrong side of a 1-13 to 1-8 score-line to start their 2011 campaign in defeat.
The next day out, Cavan met the challenge of a strong Down outfit in Kingscourt and despite Cian McEnroe kicking from corner-forward for the home side they would crash to a second defeat in seven days by 1-11 to 0-12.
The signs of improvement were there and it would prove a case of third time lucky for the Blues when they welcomed neighbours Monaghan to Kingspan Breffni Park. With a stiff breeze at their backs, the hosts raced out of the traps with a superb Joe Dillon goal and points from captain Paul Graham, Gary Tubman, Cian McEnroe and Dara McVetty to hold a commanding 1-9 to nothing lead after 25 minutes. Monaghan couldn't find away to undo the damage in the second-half and by the end Cavan would have their first win under their belts on a 1-15 to 1-6 score-line. Cavan would go through to an irrelevant Shield semi-final meeting with Donegal on April 16, in which they would end up losing by 0-13 to 0-7.
It all geared Cavan towards an Ulster championship quarter-final against Antrim at Pairc Esler in Newry on May 29. The Saffrons had impressed in their preliminary round victory over Donegal and with an extra championship game under their belts the Blues could expect a stiff challenge from a county which is widely regarded as one of the northern province's minnows.
In the end though, the rising Blues would score an emphatic 2-12 to 2-2 victory over Antrim to book a semi-final date with holders Tyrone.
Fired-up by their management before the throw-in, the young Breffni men got off to the perfect start in this encounter when corner-forward Andrew Graham found the net inside the first 30 seconds and they repeated the trick five minutes later when Arva ace Kevin Bouchier raced through and sent the ball to the Antrim net.
The shell-shocked Saffrons literally had nothing in response and in fact trailed at the break by 2-6 to 0-0, as points from Graham and Joe Dillon moved Cavan into an unassailable lead by the halfway stage. It took ten minutes to pass in the second-half before Antrim opened their account via a Ryan Murray point, with Dillon picking up a second yellow card in the meantime which reduced the Blues to 14 men.
Antrim found openings after that to register goals from Murray and Fionbharr O'Neill late on, but Cavan finished with a flourish to confirm their place in the last four, where a true test would await them.
Cavan (Ulster MFC quarter-final v Antrim): B O'Mara; B Sankey, K Clarke, F Moore; G Smith, C Moynagh, C Brady; P Graham, J Dillon (0-2); A Dewart, L Buchanan, M Argue (0-1); A Graham (1-3), K Bouchier (1-1), C Finnegan (0-2). Subs: J McCabe for C Brady (46); V Coyle for A Dewart (52); C McEnroe (0-2, 1f) for A Graham (57).
With Leaving Certificate exams throughout most of June, Cavan's wait to take on the All-Ireland champions extended over a month long.
However, it would prove well worth the wait for the true blue supports that made the short journey to Enniskillen, where Cavan had already ended Tyrone's Ulster title ambitions three months previous in the Under 21 grade, as brace of Conor Finnegan goals helped the young Breffni men upset the odds and move into the provincial decider.
The winners started strong in this thrilling semi-final at Brewster Park to race into a 0-3 to nothing lead, but were stunned by Daniel McNulty's early goal, before Andrew Graham had sent a penalty wide, and it helped Tyrone move into a 1-4 to 0-6 lead at half-time.
Both teams struggled to rediscover their scoring touch early on in the resumption, before Finnegan netted twice in as many minutes early in the final quarter to put the Blues in control, while Bailieborough's Billy O'Mara, who was sublime between the posts, also pulled off some fine saves to deny Tyrone down the other end. Sean Molloy did pull back a late goal for the Red Hands, but Cavan held on for a 2-13 to 2-10 win to set up a showdown with Armagh two weeks later at Clones.
Cavan (Ulster MFC semi-final v Tyrone): B O'Mara; B Sankey, K Clarke, F Moore (0-2); G Smith, C Brady, D McVeety (0-3); P Graham (0-1), L Buchanan; A Dewart, J Dillon (0-2), M Argue (0-1); A Graham (0-1), K Bouchier (0-1, 1f), C Finnegan (2-0). Subs: C Moynagh for Buchanan (h-t), V Coyle (0-1) for Moore (49), N O'Donnell (0-1) for McVeety (50), G Tubman for A Graham (58).
All roads led back to Clones as Cavan prepared for a rematch against an Armagh side under the managership of Paul McShane, who had steered his native county to Ulster and All-Ireland glory in 2009.
Once again the Blues were well-drilled coming out of the dressing-room and made a sizzling start to the decider by notching the first five points inside the opening 11 minutes, but Armagh recovered well and hit an unanswered 1-6 to hold the lead come half-time. It took 13 minutes for Cavan to get off the mark in the second-half and once they did they wouldn't look back, as their sublime defence held the Orchard County scoreless for the entire half-hour to record a long-awaited provincial success at this grade.
Cavan flew out of traps for this showdown at a wet St Tiernach's Park, with Conor Finnegan, Joe Dillon, Gerard Smith and two points from Andrew Graham getting them off to an absolute flyer.
Seemingly unfazed, Armagh came into the game after that to hit back and level after five points in as many minutes via Paul McGeown (2), Conor White, Ethan Rafferty and Conor McNally. McGeown found a rare gap in the Breffni defence to net the only goal of the game in what looked to be a killer blow on the eve of half-time, before Conor Gough added a point from play to send Armagh in with 1-6 to 0-5 interval lead.
After some scrappy play from both sides, Michael Argue picked off a point 13 minutes into the resumption to help reset the tone for Cavan and when Darren McVitty fisted over to cut the deficit to one, after Armagh 'keeper Davy O'Hagan had done brilliantly to save from Finnegan, they could sense victory was within their grasp.
Captain Paul Graham struck the equaliser as the closing stages approached and when sibling Andrew Graham fired them in front, quick points from Nevin O'Donnell and Conor Finnegan followed to send the Breffni contingent into a euphoric state come the final whistle.
Cavan (Ulster MFC final v Armagh): B O'Mara; B Sankey, K Clarke, C Smith; C Brady, C Moynagh, G Smith (0-1); M Argue (0-1), P Graham (0-1); A Dewart, J Dillon (0-1), K Boucher; A Graham (0-3), C Finnegan (0-2), D McVeety (0-1). Subs: N O'Donnell (0-2, 0-1 free) for Boucher, L Buchanan for Dewart, V Coyle for Dillon.
After the jubilant scenes at St Tiernach's Park, Dermot McCabe hailed what he described as "a great bunch" and added
"The second-half was phenomenal," said the Gowna man afterwards. "I don't think Armagh scored in the second-half and they (Cavan players) were doing just so exceptionally well. Great honesty, work rate, just all the things you want in players.
"Once you're putting that into a game and into a performance, hopefully the result will go your way. I could not and no-one could ask for any more from that bunch of lads, they're a great bunch of lads."
He also added that the management's objective before the game was to try and make sure the weight of history did not weigh down on the players, with some much talk of 1974 in the build up to the final.
"We tried to keep that off the young lads, so I don't think that bothered them. We wanted them to perform on the day. That was the focus," the former All Star stated.
"We did not try to focus too much on that it's been 1974 or whatever. It was about focus on the day and lads believing that they can compete with anyone no matter what colour the jersey is. In minor football, the way it is, anyone can win on any given day. It is down to the attitude and the application of the lads and thankfully on Sunday they performed well."
The triumph moved the Breffni teenagers into an All-Ireland quarter-final and just 60 minutes away from an appearance at Croke Park with beaten Connacht finalists Galway standing in their way.
However, on this occasion the short trip to Pearse Park in Longford proved a heart-breaking one as Shane Walsh's accurate frees proved decisive for the young Tribesmen in coming through by a slender 1-9 to 0-9.
The Ulster champions had looked the likely side in the early stages of as they moved into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead, with Kevin Bouchier and Joe Dillon leading the Breffni men's attack.
However, on 24 minutes the Tribesmen landed a crucial blow when Ian Burke pulled off some brilliant work to pick out Sean Moran's run and the midfielder blasted a splendid finish to Billy O'Mara's net. In the second-half, the Connacht side severely upped their game and drew frees from the Cavan defence for nerveless Walsh to convert and within five minutes of the restart they moved into a 1-4 to 0-6 lead.
The trend continued, as Walsh brought his personal tally up to 0-6, and despite Cavan making a fight of it until the very end, Galway finished convincing winners to move into the last four at the Blues' expense.
Gary Donohoe's verdict afterwards was that Cavan had made too many basic mistakes on the day, but he was hopeful that these crop of players could go on and push for more silverware in the near future."
"I don't think we played our best game today. We were going well maybe in the first 15 or 20 minutes but the Galway goal rattled us and unnerved us and after that, we found it hard to get into a rhythm. We made a lot of basic mistakes after that and that's the disappointing part of it now…It's just a disappointing end," said the former Belturbet boss.
"They won a lot of breaking ball I'd say, particularly in the second-half, all round the middle third of the field and even there at the end when we lifted in a few around the goals in the hope of getting a scoring opportunity, it was them who came out with the breaking ball again.
"We were (up against a quality side) but we have a lot of good players there too and hopefully they'll learn from today and go on and will represent Cavan with pride and will hopefully be successful with Cavan again in the very near future, it won't take as long to win something again. Hopefully these boys will drive on. Next year some of them will be at Under 21 level and some of them will be back at minor level and hopefully they'll be pushing on to win again."
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