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Cavan boss Terry Hyland admits Tyrone's experience was key

The experienced Tyrone squad kept the youngsters of Cavan at arms length for the entirety of the match<br />Picture by Colm O'Reilly
The experienced Tyrone squad kept the youngsters of Cavan at arms length for the entirety of the match
Picture by Colm O'Reilly
The experienced Tyrone squad kept the youngsters of Cavan at arms length for the entirety of the match
Picture by Colm O'Reilly

Allianz National Football League Division Two final: Tyrone 1-17 Cavan 0-15

CAVAN boss Terry Hyland admitted his ambitious young team had come up against the pass-masters of counter-attacking football after falling short in yesterday’s Division Two final at Croke Park.

In some respects the Breffnimen came up against a more experienced, more well-drilled version of themselves and, despite clinging on doggedly to Tyrone’s coat-tails for much of the game, they could never quite close the gap.

Hyland admitted he was “a little bit disappointed that we weren’t closer at the end” after seeing his side lose by five, but acknowledged that Mickey Harte’s Red Hands were a bit further down the road when it comes to the transition from swarming defence to quick, deadly attacks.

“It’s been their game-plan for a long number of years, whereas we are only starting out at it,” said the Lacken man.

“They probably haven’t changed their game-plan in the last seven or eight years and they’re probably more adept at doing that, and their players are more used to the system.

“We battled hard but we made mistakes and that’s ultimately what cost us. In transition we gave away three or four scores where we lost possession through an intercepted hand pass or bad foot passing.

“We didn’t push up enough when they dropped back and maybe we did a little bit more of that in the second half.

“Look, it gives us something to work on.”

A 49th minute goal from Ronan O’Neill dealt a savage blow to Breffni hopes, as Tyrone took a six-point lead with just over 20 minutes left.

Cavan battled back, claiming the next two scores, but they were left to rue a missed goal chance by full-forward David Givney, the Mountnugent man’s thunderous effort flying just over Mickey O’Neill’s crossbar three minutes after Ronan O’Neill’s major.

Had that shot rippled the net it could have brought the Breffnimen right back into it, but Hyland wasn’t in the mood to dwell on what-might-have-beens.

“It put that gap in it and it left it hard,” said the Breffni boss of O’Neill’s goal.

“We had to chase the game, we had an opportunity with David Givney in the second half and we had got a little bit of momentum, and maybe if we had got a goal at that stage it could’ve pulled us back into the game.

“In fairness, Tyrone were the better team on the day so we can’t take away from that. We have to go away and learn from the mistakes we made today - and we did make mistakes - but we did a lot of good things.

“From a positive point of view, we had a lot of young players out today, their first time in Croke Park, and I thought some of them acquitted themselves quite well.”

With attention now turning to their Ulster Championship quarter-final meeting with Armagh on May 29, there will be plenty of focus on the 17-point drubbing Cavan handed the Orchardmen back at the start of March.

Hyland, though, doesn’t expect Armagh to bear any mental scars when the counties line out at Kingspan Breffni Park in five weeks’ time.

He said: “It’s a totally different game.

“We haven’t really looked at Armagh, we’ve been getting ready for Tyrone. Armagh will be different, they had a good finish to their League, were unfortunate to get relegated.

“I know we had as bit of a runaway against them but I don’t think that’s going to happen the next day.”