Football

Cavan expected to build on Monaghan win at home to Antrim

Goalkeeper Raymond Galligan, who scored the winner against Monaghan last weekend. 
Goalkeeper Raymond Galligan, who scored the winner against Monaghan last weekend.  Goalkeeper Raymond Galligan, who scored the winner against Monaghan last weekend. 

Ulster SFC quarter-final: Cavan v Antrim (today, Kingspan Breffni, 1.15pm, live on BBC2)

CAVAN showed against Monaghan that League woes can wilt away with a big Championship win, and this afternoon Antrim will try and follow the lead of the Breffni county.

Last week Mickey Graham's side went into their preliminary round clash with Monaghan as rank outsiders following their relegation to Division Three but they flipped the tone of their season with a 2-15 to 1-17 win and a performance laced with heart and no shortage of good score-taking.

When Rory Beggan drew Monaghan level in the dying embers of extra-time, Cavan fans were looking to goalkeeper Raymond Galligan to be their hero for the impeding penalty shoot-out. As it turns out, the Lacken man was their saviour even earlier as he went up the Clones pitch and nailed a monster free that will likely have a metre added on for every passing year.

Antrim find themselves in a similar position to the one Cavan did pre-match as they head to Kingspan Breffni.

Their League campaign also ended in despair as a frankly embarrassing 25-point loss to Wicklow in round six ended their Division Four promotion hopes. The Garden county have since shown their worth with two wins in Wexford to earn promotion and a Leinster Championship scalp, but the margin of defeat was simply not acceptable.

Antrim's recovery was helped by Waterford's actions in the lead up to their final round seven game. The Munster side looked set to concede over concerns of travelling to the Saffron county in these Covid times. A statement said that they would have been happy to play in the South, Antrim called them on it and moved the match to Louth and with some extra motivation, Harbinson's men prevailed.

That win, and the circus around it, was just the tonic to accelerate the removal of the Wicklow thumping from the physce. Are they fully recovered? Only time will tell - because Lenny Harbinson's side have a chance here if their mindset is in the right place.

Firstly, Antrim's last five Championship games against Cavan have included two wins and a draw. Those games span over 17 years, and their only other provincial wins in that time were against Donegal (2009) and Fermanagh (2014).

The last of those two wins against Cavan came in the 2009 Ulster semi-final and four starters from that famous day in Clones are set to feature at Kingspan Breffni – the recently returned Kevin O'Boyle, Paddy Cunningham and the McCann brothers, Mick and Tomas.

The latter three were responsible for 10 points in their 2-14 to 0-13 win over Waterford last time out.

When Antrim play good football, it can be very easy on the eye. Their first point of the day against the Déise was an example of that.

Six Antrim players bunched deep close to Oisin Kerr as he prepared for the kick-out allowing Colum Duffin an acre of space to receive possession from the goalkeeper. Duffin's lofted pass found Mark Sweeney and he off-loaded to Kevin Quinn who delivered a precise 35-metre kick-pass to Patrick McBride.

Sweeney, not content with his involvement, continued his run and took possession back from McBride and drew players into the corner. That allowed him to return the ball to McBride, who wasn't tracked, and the St John's man kicked over a fine right-footed score.

That play arrived after a Waterford score that also came from an Antrim kick-out.

Kerr's kick-out was inaccurate and Dermot McAleese was beaten to the ball by Robbie Flynn. McAleese's response was a split-second moan at his 'keeper, enough of a distraction to take him out of the play. James McAuley and Duffin had also switched off momentarily. The former's hesitation meant that James Curry was able to break away from McAuley while Duffin hadn't tracked Shane Ahern's run from midfield.

Ahern took the ball from Flynn and with McAuley caught between standing him up and tracking Curry, he was side-stepped easily. Duffin wasn't able to get back to match Curry's run and the Waterford man took the ball off Ahern for an easy score.

That minute of football was a microcosm of the Antrim season. When sharp and tuned in, Harbinson's men can play some effective football. When they aren't, teams can waltz through them.

Understandably they will need to be switched on for all 70 minutes to surprise Cavan because Graham's side will be in confident mood heading into this.

Not only have they achieved back-to-back Ulster wins over Monaghan, but now back-to-back Ulster finals come into view. The last time they managed that was in 1968-69, but if they win as expected here, they will likely carry favouritism into their semi-final meeting with the winners of Fermanagh and Down.

All of a sudden Cavan have serious options too. Thomas Galligan came off the bench to deliver a star performance against Monaghan and he was also excellent coming in during the second half of their round seven National League loss to Roscommon. He looks likely to come into the side this weekend. Niall Murray and Chris Conroy both scored from the bench while Thomas Edward Donohoe also looked very lively during his cameo.

They had a dozen different scorers against Monaghan and although that is a burden they have been sharing well all year, it was well above their 2020 average of 8.4 scorers per game.

In the analysis of their win over Monaghan, Graham will look to two important periods. Scoring the last six points of the 70 minutes to force extra-time was, of course, massive, but so to was the fact that they led 1-2 to 0-1 early on despite feeling the force of Storm Aiden.

Starting fast has been an issue for this team, but they bucked the trend last weekend. Expect them to race out of the traps here and that should provide the platform for victory. Cavan by five.