Football

Cavan facing a tough test

CAVAN boss Terry Hyland often says that his young charges are on a learning curve. This will be a decent test of how far along that the Breffnimen are - and if Wexford are on the way back up or not. After five consecutive seasons in Division Three - and three of the previous four in 2B - Cavan are keen to move up to a higher level.

However, Hyland appreciates that the model county will regard themselves of being worthy of a better standing too, commenting: "They'll be tough opposition down there. They've been competing in Leinster finals and competed very well with Dublin in recent years.

"I know they're missing a couple of players as well through injury. They'll be well set-up. They played Division Two last year and I'm sure they'll be looking to get back up there."

Cavan 'failed' their most recent challenge, suffering their first defeat of this season in the mcKenna Cup final against an understrength Tyrone side, but Hyland understandably said that confidence hadn't been hit too hard by that defeat:

"It wasn't bad - we competed very well for 40, 50 minutes of the game, until we went a man down [defender Killian Brady was dismissed for a combination of yellow and black cards].

"There's no doubt we had a bad few minutes before half-time that allowed Tyrone back into the game. It's all a learning curve for us - we have to learn from those mistakes and make sure we don't repeat them."

The team news for this match is largely a tale of two full-forwards, with Cavan looking set to be deprived of their star Eugene Keating while Wexford welcome PJ Banville back into their starting side.

Hyland said of Keating "he'll be ruled out for sunday" after going off injured early in the Inter-pros final last weekend, but then appeared to leave the door ajar, with the team selection being delayed:

"It's a hamstring, so we can't really put a date on it yet. I saw him on Wednesday evening and it takes time for those things to settle down...

"We want to give Eugene as much time as possible and let the medical team assess how he is getting on."

Yet in the likelihood that the st sylvester's, Dublin clubman will be absent, Hyland is still confident that Cavan can cope: "It's a big blow because he's been going well for us but, as I've often told you before, we tend to talk about the lads who are there rather than the lads who are missing.

"of course he's a loss, he's a class footballer for Cavan but somebody else will step in to cover for him, that's what the panel is all about."

The Blues will look to the likes of martin Dunne, Cian mackey, and Kevin Tierney for scores, and are also boosted by the availability of man-marker Jason McLoughlin, who returned against Tyrone: "That was his first game since playing club U21 last November.

"We have a few positives to go with the negative of Eugene being missing. All in all it should balance out." McLoughlin's tenacious tackling could be especially useful against an attack including Banville, Ben Brosnan, and Ciaran Lyng. Even if the shannon Gael doesn't start, Cavan's overall defending as a team should see them record a third win and a second defeat for Aidan o'Brien's Wexford.

TEAMS

Wexford: S Roche; B Malone, G Molloy,

C Carty; A Flynn, J Breen, T Rossiter; D Waters, P Byrne; Colm Kehoe, B Brosnan, M Furlong; C Lyng, PJ Banville, K O'Grady.

Subs: T Hayes, P Kelly, B O'Gorman, Cillian Kehoe, M O'Regan, R Tierney, G Cullen,

J Turbitt, K Day, A Cash, N Harney.

Cavan: TBC

Referee: Michael Collins (Cork)