At just 19 years old, Cavan's Micheal Lyng is one of the most promising football prospects in the country. The swashbuckling attacker enjoyed a stunning 2004 season with both club and county and all the indications are that '05 could be equally stellar. Gerry Robinson spoke to the Gaels clubman about the season gone by and his hopes/aspirations for the future. Two-thousand-and-four could hardly have gone much better for Micheal Lyng. At club level, the exciting young attacker completed back-to-back SFC wins and Cavan Gaels went on to give a magnificent account of themselves in the Ulster club championship. On the county front, Lyng was called onto the Cavan senior panel for the first time and manager Eamon Coleman showed great faith in the Gaels clubman, handing him the No.11 jersey for the championship. True to form, Micheal didn't let the Derry-born manager down, delivering towering, mature-beyond-his-years performances against Down (twice), Armagh and the Oak Leaf County. The Ulster championship opener against Down was the defining match in Cavan's year. The Breffni Blues had endured a rather torrid national league, while the Mourne men had won promotion to the top flight. The original meeting took place at Casement Park on May 16 and finished level, 1-13 apiece. In the replay at Breffni Park, Cavan recorded a superb 3-13 to 2-12 victory. This qualified the unfashionable Blues for a provincial semi-final clash with none other than Armagh, the glamour side of Ulster football. The Orchard County's first round demolition of Monaghan led many to suggest that Cavan would be mere cannon fodder against Joe Kernan's big guns. On the day, however, this was anything but the case. At Clones, on Sunday June 13, despite playing the entire match with fourteen men, Cavan came agonisingly close to causing a major upset. They matched Armagh all the way and deserved a draw at the very least. However, the immense experience and guile of Kernan's boys proved decisive in the end as the would-be Ulster champions came back from the dead with a run of four late points to prevail by 0-13 to 0-11. That Armagh won their other two matches in Ulster in 2004 by an aggregate tally of 28 points says it all about the quality of Cavan's brave effort. In the qualifiers, Cavan were drawn against the manager's native county. The match was at Celtic Park on July 4 and finished all-square, 2-9 to 0-15. But, amazingly, Derry outscored the visitors by ten points in extra time to put an end to Cavan's year. The winners went on to reach an All-Ireland semi-final. There, Cavan's championship season finds context… I put it to Micheal Lyng that it was a wonderful display against Armagh. Cavan were fearless that day at St Tiernach's Park and probably deserved to win. "It was a sickener, to be honest," the athletic attacker counters. "The fact that we know we could have beaten them, and then to see Fermanagh beat them in an All-Ireland quarter-final, was very frustrating. We knew Armagh were there for the taking and we felt going into the game that we would beat them, so it was very disappointing to see the chance pass us by. "We were so close, leading by two points with two minutes remaining. Nine times out of ten, in that position, a team goes on to win. But Armagh came back at us. We had a few chances to go three ahead but failed to land the killer punch. We were also lacking the experience to see out the game." What was the mood like in the Cavan dressing-room afterwards? Were the players deflated? Demoralised? Devastated? "It wasn't that bad. It would have been a lot worse if we had played poorly or if we'd been thrashed, but at least we had the satisfaction of knowing we had matched Armagh and that we had a lot to offer." Considering that Cavan had five debutants for the championship opener and went on to generally give as good as they got against three of the province's leading lights, it was an encouraging innings. Micheal agrees: "We're happy enough going into next year. I think there's an Ulster championship in this team. We're up against Antrim in the first round again. Cavan lost to them in Breffni two years ago but hopefully we'll be ready for them this time and will get the victory we require." From his imposing performances, you'd never guess that Micheal only turned 19 at the start of 2004. After impressing with the county U21s, he was called into the senior panel for the last round of the national football league and retained his place. Coming in on the forty was quite an achievement. The manager obviously has tremendous faith in the player's ability … even if Mr. Coleman didn't tell him personally that he'd be wearing the No.11 shirt for the Round Seven league game against Galway! Micheal explains: "The manager asked me where I'd like to play and I said 'centre forward'. When I looked at the match programme for the Galway game, I saw that I was down to play at centre forward. I was delighted with that." Was it a difficult step-up? "It wasn't overwhelming. The first game against Down in Casement was the highlight of the year for me." At club level, Cavan Gaels won their second successive senior league and championship double. (In 2003, the club also won the minor double.) As well as the SFC and Division One league title, Gaels also scooped the inaugural South Ulster League crown, beating Carrickmacross by 24 points in the final. Not a bad year's work, by any standards! "We take every game and every competition seriously," Micheal notes. "You want to win everything. We also won the reserve double. Winning the championship wasn't a formality - we got to the final easily enough but once you get to a final it's always going to be tough and we only won the [2003 and 2004] finals narrowly. We're not getting carried away. We know there are many potential pitfalls before we get into Ulster again, because everybody wants to beat the Gaels. "Six of the players on our senior team never lost a game at underage level in Cavan or in Ireland. They won everything at U10, Feile and Ulster minor club level, and we have beaten all the top clubs in Ulster at underage level." Cavan Gaels don't suffer from an inferiority complex when they go head to head with the best teams in Ulster. In 2004, they hammered Monaghan champions Magheracloone in the first round of the Ulster club championship but were then narrowly beaten by eventual Ulster champions Crossmaglen. "In 2003, we were happy just to win the county, but his year we wanted to do more than just win Cavan. But Crossmaglen were as cute as foxes. On the day. we didn't deserve to win. We weren't terrible, but I'm not sure we played to our full potential. We won the league final by 14 or 15 points the week before whereas Cross' were after having two tough games against Slaughtneil, so that didn't help our cause. But hopefully the experience will stand to us." What does 2005 have in store for Micheal Lyng? "I'm looking forward to a good year with the club and county. With Cavan, we're aiming for an Ulster final at least. We're not too far behind the likes of Mayo and we feel we have a lot to offer at the moment. Cavan Gaels will go all out for the three-in-a-row and if we manage that then we'll take it from there." It's going to be an interesting year. Tweet

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