BEFORE a ball was kicked in Division Four, Cavan looked the stand-out side and it seemed the drama could centre on the battle for second place. Those pre-season predictions are looking increasingly accurate and after three games the Breffnimen remain the red-hot favourites for promotion.
Mickey Graham’s side dropped like a stone from the top flight to the basement division after successive relegations in a topsy-turvy three-year spell but they are well on their way to starting the climb up again.
They top the table with six points and it looks like the chasing pack is playing for the runners-up spot. A Sligo win on Sunday will change that but Yeatsmen manager Tony McEntee makes no bones about the challenge facing his side on Sunday.
“Cavan are a strong team that has pedigree,” said Crossmaglen native McEntee.
“For whatever reason, they’ve slipped into Division Four but they’re better than that, to be fair they’re probably a Division Two team so you would expect them to be winning games in Division Four.
“We have four games left and we need to win three of them, so it’s fair to say that we do need something out of this game.
“We have London at home and then we’re away to Waterford and Leitrim which will be extremely tough. You don’t want to be in that situation where you’re going into the last game of the year and tossing a coin to see whether you’re going to be promoted or not.”
McEntee’s men began the season by beating Wexford and Carlow but lost their way against winless Tipperary last weekend. Armagh All-Ireland winner McEntee says his players didn’t lack for effort but basic errors cost them at Semple Stadium. Even so if they had taken two late goal chances the result could have been different.
“It was very frustrating for us because we’re better than our performance and if we had performed to the standards we set for ourselves we could have beaten Tipperary and that’s disappointing,” he said.
“But it’s not that we don’t have the players, or we don’t have the ability. It’s bringing the right application and attitude and I think we can correct that.”
Sligo need to do that and produce their best form to cause an upset on Sunday against a Cavan side that lost Thomas Galligan to a red card against Carlow but still managed an impressive 19 points.
“We want to be better than last weekend but we’re also playing better opposition,” said McEntee.
“We are up against it, that’s no secret but the players play better when they’re in that situation, when there’s more expected of us and more application is required.”
Last year – his first as manager – McEntee’s Sligo finished third in the northern group of what is always a competitive division. Antrim and Louth were promoted but the quality arguably improved after Cavan and Tipperary (provincial champions in Ulster and Munster in 2020) were relegated from Division Three.
“The teams are very even except for Cavan who are the stand-out team in the Division,” said McEntee.
“If we’re going into the last game of the League and there’s still a chance of us getting promoted, I think it shows the value in having equal competition in the League structure.
“So it’s a great competition but it’s very tough to get out of this division because of the quality of teams that’s in it and the relegated teams coming back down.”
