Allianz Football League Division Two: Cavan v Westmeath (tonight, 7pm, Kingspan Breffni)
Cahair O’Kane
MICKEY Graham only thought taking Cavan to an Ulster final was a test of his managerial skills.
The honeymoon ended in brutal fashion and what he faces now is a far greater test. Beyond the Instagrammable early summer of 2019, the realities of life came out to meet them and Graham has been left holding the baby.
Their winter woes are well worn already. We know who they’ve lost and largely why they’ve lost them.
Salvaging an atmosphere of positivity in that changing room must have been close to impossible even before last Saturday night’s walloping in Armagh.
They were taken apart by a debutant scoring 1-6 on an Orchard team that showed as little mercy as they had in meting out a similar punishment during the McKenna Cup.
Their losses have bit down hard. Prior to that game, some recalled the 2018 campaign, when they’d been relegated and given little hope of instant recovery, only to bounce back and win promotion once more.
Safe to say that won’t be happening this time. Armagh told us that Cavan are nowhere near being promotion contenders. Westmeath will tell us what chance they have of staying up.
It’s hard to fathom that after a year where they reached a first provincial final since 2001, the Breffnimen could end up in the thick of a proper scrap to retain their senior championship status.
Lose tonight, and the prospect will become very real indeed.
Westmeath will be bubbling after winning their first game back up in Division Two, but it must be tempered by the fact it was a one-point win over a Clare side whose own relegation struggle is to be expected, given that they’re minus their two best players.
John Heslin snatched the win with a 76th minute free, and although they look set to continue without the injured Kieran Martin, the return of Ray Connellan from the AFL is a huge boost at midfield, where he’s paired with the experienced Denis Corroon.
They’ve come up and are a stronger unit than the one that won promotion out of the third tier. Another two points in Breffni would move them already very close to safety, even if the games will only get harder.
Cavan will be sweating on Conor Madden and Conor Smith, who both went off injured in the first half last weekend. They can ill-afford Madden to be absent, given that he was their one real attacking threat against Armagh, grabbing two points from play before he went off on the half hour.
Their visible downheartedness was reflected in the lack of discipline that saw them three times reduced in numbers by the black card last week, at one stage finding themselves down to 13 men as the sin bin periods for Padraig Faulkner and James Smith overlapped.
If they continue to mope about and lament their losses, then it’s Division Three they’re headed for. They’ve worked too hard for too long to let that happen, and so there will undoubtedly be a response from Cavan tonight.
It’s whether they can cover for the absence of all that attacking quality they’ve lost. It will go to the wire. A draw could be a good shout, but if it’s to be edged, Westmeath have that little bit more up front.
