Hyland demands 'desire, work-rate, heart, bravery’ against Monaghan

Paul Fitzpatrick

Cavan may be entering this evening’s Ulster semi-final against Monaghan (throw-in 7pm) as 6/4 underdogs but manager Terry Hyland was bullish when speaking to The Anglo-Celt earlier this week.

Cavan, said Hyland, are up for the challenge.

'They are upbeat, they are playing in an Ulster semi-final so they are bound to be. Motivation won’t be a problem at the minute,' he stated.

Asked if the over-riding emotion after the win over Fermanagh was one of relief, the Lacken clubman said:

'Relief would be too strong a word, we were confident going into the game, seeing out games would have been a problem before but I suppose we proved once again that we can see it out. That works both ways, the opposition will know too that if you are thereabouts at the end of the game, you can see it out.'

The Cavan management are expecting league champions Monaghan to pose a fresh test, with a more attack-minded approach than Fermanagh.

'I expect it will be a mix of the two games. I don’t expect it to be as tight defensively wise as the Fermanagh game and I think Monaghan will be more attack-minded,' he said.

While Monaghan will know what to expect from Cavan, Hyland isn’t perturbed.

'That’s fine, it’s up to everybody to adapt on the day against the team we’re playing, that’s par for the course and we don’t think we have a problem adapting to play whatever opposition we’re playing.

'Our finishing would be one area [we need to work on]. We created a lot of chances and maybe we were a wee bit hasty sometimes, we need to be a bit more patient and get the ball to our shooters a little bit more often.

'We probably could have been more ahead at half-time and we knew that Fermanagh were going to come back. And if you have a greater cushion, it leaves it a bit easier because you can absorb it. If you’re four, five, six or seven points ahead at half-time, for every two scores they kick, you can get away with kicking one score to keep the scoreboard ticking over until you get into your purple patch again. That’s the natural rhythm of the game, teams will have a period of dominance and you have to maximise the damage you can do in those periods when you’re on top.

'We saw it yesterday in the Down-Donegal game, Donegal looked like they were going to run away with it but Down settled down and the pattern of the game changed.'

While Cavan have enjoyed success at underage level, Hyland admitted that Monaghan have the edge in senior experience.

'Monaghan have competed in two Ulster finals in the last few years, they know what it’s all about to get to an Ulster final, they know what it takes at that level where we haven’t, we haven’t been there since 01 so from that point of view it’s unknown territory for this Cavan team.

'They have two or three good forwards, McGuinness, McManus, Finlay... They have Hughes at the back and Corey. I mean Monaghan are a well-balanced team and they have got promotion on the back of that to Division 2. They have the experience as well.'

Cavan weren’t expected to get as far as they have but now that they are in the last four, there is no danger of complacency, assured the manager.

'Bookies and pundits and everybody looks at the National League results and have informed opinions based on that and they probably haven’t got the insight on what has gone on on the training pitch, but we know these lads have worked hard, and we know there’s more in them.'

Winning, and setting up an Ulster final against the All-Ireland champions, will come down to a few obvious, but important, factors, said Hyland.

'It’ll be down to desire, work-rate, heart, bravery, all those clichés that everybody throws out and probably something a little bit special from one or two players. That’s what it will take.'