Finbar O'Reilly's learning curve ascended steeply in 2001. Helping Lacken to a senior county semi-final and Cavan to an Ulster final, the young sharpshooter came of age and provided both himself and the teams he represents with a solid platform from which to build. What a year it was for Lacken! The 1997 intermediate champions reached the last four of the county SFC for the first time in 30 years and, in so doing, firmly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the Breffni County's top flight. A draw with Killygarry (1-11 to 2-8) and victories over Ramor Utd (1-15 to 1-8) and Laragh Utd (0-12 to 1-5) in the group stages set the high-scoring Lacken men on their way to the knock-out stages for the fourth successive season. In the quarter-final they met Bailieborough Shamrocks. After a draw in which the protagonists accumulated 1-10 apiece, Lacken registered a mild surprise with a 1-12 to 0-12 win. This brought them through to the penultimate round and a meeting with Cavan Gaels. Defeat was to be their lot but there was no shame in the 1-10 to 0-9 deficit and it was certainly a match that could have been won had the crucial breaks arrived at the right times on the day. All in all, Lacken will have learned a lot from their year and full forward Finbar O'Reilly is understandably upbeat about the progress they made over the course of the 2001 season. Celebrating a year in which he was top scorer for both club and county, the ace marksman notes: "Championship-wise, nothing was won in 2001, either with Lacken or Cavan. Nonetheless, progress was made on both fronts and it would be fair to say that both teams raised a few eyebrows. Not many gave either side much of a chance at the start of the year. The surprise element is gone now, but we know ourselves what we're capable of and the target for 2002 will be to take it a step further." Finbar's form in 2001 was nothing less than a revelation. He capably shouldered the extra responsibilities placed upon him by outgoing county boss Val Andrews and blossomed into Cavan's most prolific scorer . . . and one of the most dangerous forwards in the province. O'Reilly has represented Lacken at all levels, collecting his fair share of honours along the way, including an under 16 and minor leagues and an intermediate championship. Winner of an All-Ireland with Cavan College of Further Studies in 1996, he has worn the county colours at all levels - U16, minor, U21 (in 1998 and '99) and senior. With the county seniors, he tasted Dr McKenna Cup success in 2001. The gifted attacker's potential was always apparent even from a very young age and he has been a regular fixture on the Lacken first team since 1995. In the meantime, the club has developed from intermediate also-rans to the heights of senior semi-final day. O'Reilly has grown in tandem with the team. However, his enthusiasm regarding what Lacken achieved in 2001 is tempered somewhat by the poor league form that culminated in demotion to Division Two: "The championship went well. It had been a long time since Lacken reached the semi-finals and we'd made the quarter-finals for each of the previous three years without getting any further, so it was nice to progress that bit further. "But getting relegated out of Division One was a big setback and a major disappointment. Back in '97, we won the intermediate championship and also got promoted to Division One at the same time. We were getting to the knock-out stages of the championship each year and things were looking good to anyone looking in from the outside. But there was always that problem with lack of consistency in the league. We tended to start the year badly and finished badly, just hitting form for a while in the middle around championship time. That finally caught up with us and it's something we're going to have to eradicate. We'll be hoping to show much better league form this coming season." There was precious little wrong with their championship form, however: "We drew the first game against Killygarry and then had a great victory over Ramor and things were going well at that stage. We beat Laragh and went into the quarter-final against Bailieborough feeling quietly confident. "We beat them after a replay and it was a big surprise, especially with them having so many players on the county panel and having won the county championship in 1995 and us not having won anything. It was a great win and a great day for the club." And it earned Lacken a semi-final meeting with Cavan Gaels, by far the dominant team in Cavan football. Lambs to the slaughter? Not on your life! "We knew they'd be hard beaten", Finbar reflects, "because they hadn't lost a match all year and were putting their opponents away comfortably. The goal they scored midway through the first half was the killer punch. We'd stayed with them up 'til then and were giving them a great game but we never quite recovered from that goal and couldn't get back on level terms. "The goal was always there and we ended up losing by four points. The game highlighted our inability to score goals, a failing which ultimately proved our undoing. We only scored six goals in the league all year and four in the championship, so we know we have to find the net on a more regular basis. We had trouble in that department all year and it's certainly an aspect of our game that we'll be working on in 2001." Finbar O'Reilly was Cavan's top scorer in the championship. It was his third year on the senior panel but his first as a regular on the starting XV. "I joined in September '98 when I was 20 and Cavan still had class players like Ronan Carolan and Fintan Cahill in there who had won Ulster medals the previous year, not to mention the likes of Peter Reilly, Larry Reilly and Mickey Graham, so it was far from easy to get a place in the forwards. "Val Andrews placed his faith in me and he gave me the chance last year, even though I'd had a knee cartilage operation in September 2000. The fact that Ronan Carolan had retired from intercounty football left a vacancy for the role of free-taker and Val gave me the responsibility. I like to think I repaid him." Many brows furrowed when Cavan made it through to the Ulster final. "People had tipped Fermanagh or Donegal to come out of our side of the draw but we always believed in our own ability. Even though we weren't expected to make any impression, we knew ourselves that we could get out. "Once we got to the final, we weren't happy with that. In spite of what the papers and the media and everyone else was saying, we believed we could win it - and we nearly did! "We lost it really in the first ten minutes of the second half. We only managed to score three points in the second half - for some reason we failed to get our momentum back after the half time whistle. We led by three at the break and were beating them in all sectors of the field, but half time came at the worst possible time for us and the best for them. "Nobody had given us a chance. So, all the pressure was on Tyrone, which suited us perfectly. We went out and took the game to them. We gave it everything and Tyrone were shocked. They hadn't expected us to be so determined . . . the game was there for the taking. "It was a drastic improvement from our previous two outings and - to an extent - Tyrone didn't know what hit them. If half time hadn't arrived when it did, I honestly think they were dead in the water. We were rampant and Jason Reilly's brilliant goal totally knocked the stuffing out of them. Anthony Forde came up and got an inspirational point and our tails were up. If the first half had lasted another five minutes, we could well have pulled away." It was a sterling display from the Breffni men, one to silence the critics: "I think our performance in the Ulster final won us a lot of respect," Finbar suggests. "Our forwards kicked 16 wides against Monaghan in the semi-final and a similar number against Down in Casement Park and we had received a lot of criticism in the build-up to the Ulster final. We had knockers from all over the country but we vindicated ourselves in the Tyrone game." Looking ahead to the 2002 season, what are Finbar O'Reilly's hopes and expectations? "It's a year that'll bring it's own expectations from the supporters. There's a huge interest in the county and I think the supporters will expect us to make another Ulster final. We've managed to avoid Tyrone and Armagh in the draw but are on the same side as Donegal and Derry, so it's not going to be easy. "But we have already brought in some great young players and I feel that the panel is stronger than it was last year. There's intense competition for places and hopefully we can build on what we achieved in 2001. "As for the club, our No.1 aim has to be to get back into Division One. You can very easily get into a rut in Division Two so the best time to bounce back is immediately, before that happens. "Obviously, if we can match what we achieved last year in the senior championship, then that would be great. We have some good minors coming through and the likes of Joseph Crow, Terry Hyland and Mark, Gary and Paul McGauran all have intercounty experience at various levels, so we're going into the new season in a healthy state." Tweet

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