There aren’t many Cavan fans around who were there the last time the Breffnimen defeated Mayo in the championship 77 years ago but the ones who did make the trip west, with apologies to Prince, partied like it was 1949 as Mayo walked into a blue and white haymaker.
Cavan were eight points up entering injury time, and while Aidan O’Shea’s tremendous goal in junk time helped take the bad look off it for the home side, that’s what this was – bad. Manager Kevin McStay didn’t try to dress it up as anything else either, admitting that his side were fortunate to be within three at Paul Faloon’s long whistle.
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“No points now, the challenge becomes a bit more steep,” said McStay. “The game against Tyrone was always going to be a big game but it’s got a bit of edge to it now, obviously. Planning for home points, didn’t work out.
“We just came up against a Cavan team that were really energetic, got stuck into the game. Like we’ve no complaint whatsoever. The three points maybe flattered us.”
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Asked for positives, McStay took on the air of a forensic investigator at a particularly ugly crime scene.
“From our perspective we kept at it. Aidan got the last-minute goal. If there had been another minute or two who knows what would have happened. The teams were fairly out on their feet at that stage. Their job is going to be all the more acute now because we have to rise it to get ready for Tyrone. It’s all going to be a tricky fixture.”
Opposite number Raymond Galligan, meanwhile, stressed that he and his players kept the faith after a heavy defeat by Tyrone threatened to derail what was a solid spring’s work in Division 2.
“We knew after the Tyrone game that we really didn’t perform,” said the 2020 Ulster-winning captain.
“Between missing key players, weather conditions, ah look, there were a number of different reasons. But we knew that we were no bad team, we were a kick of a ball from Division 1.
“There was enough evidence there over the last three months that we could really compete, and so we put a massive emphasis on our athleticism and our fitness over the last five weeks because we knew we had to match them.
“We watched them and the one thing that stood out was that they had huge athleticism so we had to match that, and then we had to bring another layer of aggression, physicality and willingness to work, because that has to be the foundation of our team. To a man they showed that in spades.”
Cavan will host Donegal – whose manager Jim McGuinness was an interested spectator at a sun-drenched MacHale Park – on the June bank holiday weekend buoyed by the win and their minors’ progression to a first Ulster final in eight years.
For McStay there are more questions than answers.
“There was two weeks in between (this game and the Connacht final loss to Galway). I don’t really want to look back. We just weren’t at the pitch of it today. We really have to get ourselves together for this challenge against Tyrone. We have a fortnight to do it. It’s not a simple process.
“Morale swings up and down and that’s the nature of sport. But our job is to get after them now and bring the troops together. The game is behind us now no matter what way we look at it.”
