Anyway, that's it for the year. Message to the players:

Thank you. Thank you for the effort, hard work and sacrifices that were made to make this journey possible. We the fans are suffering with you over the appalling decisions that were just beyond our control yesterday. But take heart, we went toe to toe with the best u21 team in the country, a county with resources which far outweigh our own, we were rank outsiders, and we matched them all the way. It took a farce of a refereeing decision to get them over the line. Remember, for the fans and players alike, this is the beginning. We are still at the start of our era. And the future belongs to Cavan. We have the structures in place. We have the silverware at underage. We are consistent now at u21 and senior level. Next week the seniors can lift their first trophy in the div 3 final. That will ease the misery of yesterday to an extent at least.

I have no doubt that we will see many of this years u21 team in the Cavan senior jersey in a short space of time. It is in that jersey that you will get the rewards your efforts deserve.

Thank you, and keep it going.

Ned_Stormcrow (Cavan) - Posts: 1071 - 20/04/2014 10:03:14    1577442

Well said ned hopefully the lads use the hurt from yesterday to spur them on in the years to come

sidelineview (Cavan) - Posts: 109 - 20/04/2014 12:10:23    1577557

When the anger dies down, my overriding emotion is pride, fierce pride in this team.
At the end of the day, U21's is about looking to the future, and by God the future is in a good place with these boys around.
Thank you for that.
The defeat was hard to stomach, but the pride has been restored BIG TIME.
I'm not going to rhyme of names, but a lot of these guys, will make the step up to SENIOR, no problem, and that's all we can hope for.

5allirelands (Cavan) - Posts: 90 - 20/04/2014 12:35:18    1577568

Hard luck yesterday. Not going to get into the ref business but can understand the frustration. We've all been on the end of what seemed to be bad decisions and not going to get on high horse and claim don't understand the reaction, although going for refs is not on.

As for way Cavan set up, it is similar to Donegal in 2012 and even Dubs in 2011. I thought they were very effective in breaking forward and while they are defensive they are not negative. Bright future for Cavan if these players keep coming through. Best of luck next week in league final.

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 20/04/2014 12:49:08    1577574

I thought it was a great performance by the Cavan team..very proud of them,a few decisions went against us but the tide had turned and we did not kick on when we were 4 points up.I would love to win an All Ireland by any means but i would prefer us to be a bit more attacking..bad for football if you win all Ireland with only 2 forwards.Our half forwards did not score anything from play in the last 4 matches and probably had very few attempts on goal even. I think the options a fit madden would have given might have made a difference.We have made fantastic progress and a winning competitive mentality is there that has not been there in my fifty years.

I thought the likes of gerard smyth and mc veety who were very good were even better last year,we gave a few of the Dubs

I think we will definitely get a good chance to win an Ulster Senior Title in the next 2/3 years and we have to take that chance and as Tipp and Roscommon have won underage all ireland i can't see why we can't get one.Hopefully we will exceed my expectation and that is possible.

Dissapointed with the stuff with the Ref that is not normal Cavan form even if we had a few valid bones to pick with him.

eamonnmac (Cavan) - Posts: 59 - 20/04/2014 13:12:47    1577594

We need to learn some lessons from this match. In particular our management need to be more pro active in using the bench. There is no point in putting on a sub at the last minute. It's a failing of our senior management team also. Thanks to the players and management for a good campaign and hopefully some of the U21s will feature on Saturday night .

marita (None) - Posts: 467 - 21/04/2014 21:57:48    1578254