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Seanie Johnston just a part of well-oiled Breffni outfit: Hyland

<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">Cavan forward Seanie Johnston has been impressive since returning to the county fold</span>
Cavan forward Seanie Johnston has been impressive since returning to the county fold Cavan forward Seanie Johnston has been impressive since returning to the county fold

Allianz National Football League Division Two

TERRY HYLAND is the first to acknowledge Seanie Johnston’s return to the fold has given Cavan an extra attacking dimension, but he insists the classy forward is just one component in a well-oiled Breffni machine.

The Cavan Gaels forward has hardly put a foot wrong since returning to the panel at the end of last year, putting the controversy of his inter-county transfer to Kildare well and truly behind him.

Johnston was drafted into the starting 15 after Eugene Keating picked up a back injury and he has taken his opportunity, scoring 2-12 in the three games since. After notching 0-6 against Meath, Johnston followed that up with eye-catching performances against Armagh (1-5) and in Cavan’s crucial derby win over Fermanagh a fortnight ago, when he finished with 1-1.

Hyland is delighted to have him back on board, but prefers to talk up the Breffni outfit’s team ethos rather than focus on individuals: “Yeah, Seanie’s done well - he gives us another outlet,” he said.

“But in fairness, any player who plays well does so on the back of the players around him. If you’re finishing, you get the opportunities, that’s what you’re there for. Gearoid McKiernan scored four points [against Fermanagh], we had nine different scorers the last day, 11 the day before that. I wouldn’t particularly put it down to Seanie, I think it’s a mixture of a lot of different factors. If you get yourself tied down to one particular scorer or one particular individual, you find that the opposition can close the outlet to them very easily.”

Cavan go into Sunday’s showdown with Laois full of confidence after that victory over their Erne neighbours and they will be out to make it four wins in-a-row against the struggling O’Moore county.

Laois boss Mick Lillis saw his side concede 5-10 to Derry on March 13, but they still managed a draw whereas, the week previous, he was at a loss to explain what had gone wrong as they were brushed aside by Fermanagh. Level on three points with bottom side Armagh and Meath going into this weekend’s round of games, Laois find themselves in a relegation battle, whereas Cavan still harbour realistic hopes of promotion to the top flight.

Neil Loughran, Andy Watters and Cahair O'Kane run their eye over this weekend's match-ups in Division Two:

Win on Sunday and they could be facing a final day shoot-out with Galway for a promotion spot alongside Tyrone but, for now, Laois are Hyland’s only concern: “They seem to have a little bit of a Jekyll and Hyde scenario - and hopefully we get them this weekend and they’re not going as well," he said.

“In fairness, Tyrone only beat them by three, they’re very, very good from midfield to forward, they have a lot of different guys who can score, so we have to be very wary of them. Last year, we had to beat Meath on the last day by four and we would probably have got promoted and it just didn’t happen.

“Number one, we have to get ourselves out of any relegation battle because, technically, you could still find yourself with a problem, so we’ll focus on Laois and then see where we are on the last day.”

With Johnston in good form, Cian Mackey pushing for a starting spot after coming off the bench against Fermanagh and Keating on the comeback trail, Cavan certainly have the forwards to hurt Laois. Tomas Corrigan converted seven from nine frees as Fermanagh defeated Lillis’ team on March 7, his movement causing problems all afternoon, and Hyland is also hoping the Breffni men can get at a porous Laois defence.

“You never want to be depending on frees to win you games,” he said.

“But you would hope that we can take the ball into their defence at pace and draw whatever we can out of it. You never want to be depending on frees to win you games.”