All-Ireland SFC Qualifying round 1 B: Offaly 0-16 Cavan 1-17
CAVAN may have secured their place in this morning’s All Ireland SFC Qualifying round 2B draw, but they won’t play too many more games where they’ll get away with the type of errors they made at Bord na Móna O’Connor Park yesterday evening.
“We're making a lot of fundamental errors, I'm not even going to try and go into how many chances we missed there, the next game that's not going to be good enough, that's the reality,” fumed Mattie McGleenan after the game, though he was still relieved to come away with his first inter-county Championship victory.
“Getting over the line today, it’s my first Championship win so I’m absolutely delighted. We weren’t good after the Monaghan game, heads were down, but in fairness the training has been very good,” added the former Tyrone attacker.
“Winning breeds confidence, we have work to do but I'm just delighted to be still in the hat. We had a very tough Division One campaign, this is my first year in and every game was a massive game. The level was top class every week we went out so we very time we made a mistake we were punished, the same with the Monaghan game.”
The first half of this contest saw twenty points scored between the sides, with Cavan edging their way in front at the break by 0-11 to 0-9 thanks to some wonderful shooting from Gearóid McKiernan. However, the big Swanlinbar man was the only Breffni forward who had his shooting boots on, as only he and Niall McDermott from the starting front six for Cavan scored from play.
Offaly enjoyed some good phases in that opening half and Nigel Dunne was a real thorn in the side of the Cavan defence with three points of his own, while Graham Guilfoyle also chipped in with two excellent scores into the breeze.
With the wind advantage to come in the second half, the Faithful county must have felt like they were well poised, but Cavan came out firing on all cylinders after the interval and blew the home side away with a burst of 1-3 in seven minutes.
“They were big things, to get them scores” said McGleenan.
“It was the same the last day against Monaghan, the goal was going to be a big play, and we got it. Gearóid got into a great position, he did that against Tyrone, and he did that against Mayo in the National League, and he took the goal and we needed that.”
Gerard Smith’s wonderful solo run and point kicks-tarted Cavan’s resurgence after the break and scores from McDermott and Liam Buchanan soon put daylight between the sides. When Dara McVeety charged through the Offaly defence and set up McKiernan, who in turn produced a superb finish on the turn to move the gap to eight, the tie was effectively settled.
Brian Darby, Rúairí Allen and substitute Niall McNamee all kicked nice points for Offaly to peg back the gap, while Cavan continued to miss chances, but Offaly never looked like scoring a goal and have now gone without a green flag in five of their last six Championship starts under Pat Flanagan, so their Championship ended without a victory, while Cavan will be part of this morning’s 2B qualifier draw, where they can be paired with any one of Westmeath, Leitrim, Tipperary or old rivals Monaghan.
“All in all we're delighted, we've another day out which is class and I'll be up early tomorrow morning to hear where the next adventure takes us,” said McGleenan
Offaly: A Mulhall; B Darby (0-1), E Rigney, S Pender; D Hanlon, P Cunningham (0-1), C Donohoe; G Guilfoyle (0-2), C McNamee; S Doyle (0-1), R McNamee (0-1), M Brazil (0-1); R Allen (0-1), N Dunne (0-5, 3f), B Allen (0-2)
Subs: J Lalor for Pender (37), D Brady for Rigney (46), J O’Connor for Doyle (48), J Moloney for Allen (51), N McNamee (0-1) for C McNamee (55), A Sullivan for R McNamee (63)
Cavan: R Galligan; P Faulkner, J McEnroe, J McLoughlin; G Smith (0-1), C Moynagh (0-1), C Brady (0-1); L Buchanan (0-2), M Reilly; C Mackey, G McKiernan (1-4), D McVeety; N Clerkin, S Johnston (0-2f), N McDermott (0-4, 0-2f).
Subs: R Connolly (0-2f) for Johnston (22), N Murray for Moynagh (34), K Clarke for Smith (42), T Corr for Buchanan (55), T Galligan for Corr (56 - bc), J Dillon for McDermott (69)
Referee: Derek O’Mahoney (Tipperary)
Man of the Match
Gearóid McKiernan (Cavan)
HE scored their goal, he chipped in with four first half points from play when Offaly were competitive, and he provided real leadership on a night when Cavan looked as if they were just going through the motions.
