Cavan Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Ramor United v Mullahoran Dreadnoughts (tomorrow, Kingspan Breffni, 7pm)
AFTER four rounds of group games, the business-end of the Cavan senior championship begins this weekend and there is a whisper of a potential upset in the air as reigning champions Ramor put their hard-won Oliver Plunkett on the line against an ambitious Mullahoran outfit.
Managed by former Fermanagh pair Shane McCabe and Ryan McCluskey, Mullahoran were Division Two champions this year and since then carved out three wins in the group stage to finish fourth in the table, a place above Ramor who won two, drew one and lost one.
Ramor’s title defence has been hampered by the loss of their two most prolific forwards Sean McEvoy, to college soccer in the USA, and the luckless James Brady, who suffered a cruciate injury in the first half of their first championship match. Between them Brady (1-8) and McEvoy (0-4) contributed 1-12 of Ramor’s total of 1-15 in last year’s county final victory over Gowna.
Manager John Brady has done his best to plug the holes in his team and Ramor remain a formidable outfit that reached the Division One semi-finals and have only lost once (to Crosserlough) in the championship.
“Ramor will be favourites and rightly so,” said Mullahoran joint-manager McCabe.
“It’s going to be a big challenge for us but we’re looking forward to it. It’ll be a test for the players and a test for us as a group and we’ll give it our best shot and see where we go.”
The Dreadnoughts beat Ballinagh comfortably in their championship opener but were brought crashing back down to earth by Cavan Gaels who administered a 1-20 to 0-4 hiding. Since then however, Mullahoran have recovered and beat Laragh and Lavey.
“We’ve had a decent-enough campaign,” said McCabe.
“Momentum is a good thing in football and the boys are mad to improve but we wouldn’t get carried away because Cavan Gaels gave us a real lesson about top-tier football and we have that realisation that Sunday is going to be another step up, it’s going to be a difficult challenge.
“Ramor have lost a couple of players but they’ll be looking to come out and defend their championship with all guns blazing.”
The experience of Eddie Dalton and Colm and James Reilly provides a solid platform in the Mullahoran defence, Cavan star Killian Brady is the mainstay in midfield and up front Gavin Brady and Enda and Cormac Reilly have been in good form this season.
Experience is on Ramor’s side and they have learned from playing, and winning, championship games at Kingspan Breffni. Last year’s final against Gowna went to a replay but Ramor ended the debate conclusively in the second meeting, taking control of the game with a whirlwind start and eventually running-out four-point winners.
“They have much more experience of the big games than we have at the minute,” said McCabe.
“So it’s a step-up for our boys as a group and it’ll be interesting to see how they develop in the tough moments of this game. There was a lot of questions asked and a lot of soul-searching done in the week after the Cavan Gaels game. Individuals were challenged but in fairness to them they stood up as a group and they put in two good performances back-to-back and two good championship wins.
“Our credentials – myself and McCluskey’s – were questioned after that game but we have responded well and we want to drive it on now. There’s no point in getting to a quarter-final and finishing with a damp squib, we want to drive it forward and challenge Ramor and see if we can step into that top tier of Cavan football.”
