Allianz Football League Division Three round four
Offaly 0-14 Cavan 0-21
CAVAN produced arguably their best performance of the season so far as they comfortably outplayed Offaly at Glenisk O'Connor Park yesterday afternoon, making it four wins from four starts and piling the pressure onto Liam Kearns in advance of the Faithful County's trip to Longford next weekend, while also cementing their status as the clearest of front-runners for promotion for the second year in succession.
The damage was done in the first half, particularly in the closing stages of the half, as Cavan took an 0-11 to 0-7 lead into the dressing room, despite playing into a deceptively strong breeze.
Declan Hogan, Joe Maher and Anton Sullivan picked off good scores for the home side in the opening half, but Cavan exerted serious control on proceedings, and could have been even more in control at the break, but for Conor McNamee’s fantastic block to deny David Brady a 29th-minute goal, and Ian Duffy’s save from Killian Clarke just before the short whistle.
Man-of-the-match Paddy Lynch, Ryan O'Neill, Jonathan McCabe and Brandon Boylan were all on target with at least two points from play each as Cavan, who are now behind only Leitrim and Cork in terms of scoring through the first four rounds of League football, cruised to another win.
A 48th-minute black card for Jonathan McCabe gave Offaly the chance to stem the bleeding and curb the flow of Cavan scores, but by then the Breffni men could afford to simply keep their defensive shape and ensure that Offaly never get a sniff of the goals they badly needed to resurrect their challenge.
For Cavan manager Mickey Graham, 10 points from Lynch was a huge contribution, as the Crosserlough man stepped into the vacancy created by the injury to top-scorer Oisín Brady.
“It’s great to have the luxury of having someone like Paddy to come in and take over from Oisín. Oisín had been playing exceptionally well, but Paddy has been coming back to fitness so it was a great time to have someone like that to call on today.
“I don’t think we’re depending on any one person, we’ve a good spread of scorers, which is ideal. Lads are confident enough to take on the chances, which is what you look for. We probably left a couple of goals behind us there today but some other day, they’ll go in”.
Graham also welcomed back James Smith and Jason Faulkner, while he suggested that Brady’s injury was likely to be of the short-term variety, no more than a week or two, with Gearóid McKiernan also coming closer to a return.
“Every week we have a lad or two coming back, and the competition and intensity at training is great, because every week lads know that they have to be on the ball,” said Graham.
“It’s Ulster derbies from now on, Down first and then Antrim and Fermanagh, so there’ll be no easy games, but we’re looking forward to it.’’
Cavan: R Galligan (0-1 45); E Finnegan, P Faulkner, N Carolan; C Brady, D McVeety, T Madden; D Brady (0-1), K Clarke; G Smith (0-1), Cian Madden (0-1), J McCabe (0-2); P Lynch (0-10, 0-7f), R O'Neill (0-2), B Boylan (0-2).
Subs: J McLoughlin for Finnegan (53), S Smith for McCabe (59), Conor Madden (0-1) for Boylan (60), J Smith for Brady (60), C Rahill for Madden (64).
Yellow cards: Faulkner, C Brady, T Madden, D Brady.
Black card: McCabe.
Offaly: I Duffy; C Donnelly, D Hogan (0-1), D Dempsey; R Egan, P Cunningham (0-1f), L Pearson; J McEvoy (0-1), C McNamee; J Maher (0-1), R McNamee (0-1f), C Donohue; C Farrell, A Sullivan (0-2, 0-1f, 0-1m), D Hyland (0-6, 0-4f).
Subs: B Allen (0-1) for Maher (HT), L Egan for Ruari McNamee (45), J O'Brien for Hogan (50), J Bryant for Farrell (56), J Evans for Donohue (66)BodyText
