Action from the match.Pic: Adrian Donohoe

Woeful Cavan crash out of championship

Cavan 0-5
Roscommon 0-16

Cavan fans who have been promoting the “The future is blue” maxim on social media may not be posting with as much gusto after they saw their side crash out of the championship after a dismal performance at Breffni Park.

Terry Hyland's troops were outfought and outgunned by the classy Rossies, who led by 0-3 to 0-2 at the end of a desperately-poor first half. The westerners, with the benefit of the wind, took charge after the break and completely dominated as Cavan, with a packed defence, looked devoid of ideas going forward.

A disappointed Hyland admitted after the match that he did not have all the answers.

“It is hard to take. We prepared just as well for that as we did for any other game, which is why it's hard to fathom how it ended up the way it did. Look, it is what it is and we just have to get up and get on with it.

“In fairness, Roscommon were defensive, as were we in the first half, and the scoreline at half-time reflected that. When you're playing against a defence like that, you have to be careful with your shot selection and we weren't careful enough.”

That first half was a war of attrition. There was no score for the first 16 minutes until Diarmuid Murtagh fired over for Roscommon. Cavan landed two excellent points from Eugene Keating and Martin Reilly to go in trailing by one but that was as good as it got for the Breffni men as a succession of quality scores from the visitors saw them move well clear.

Cavan pulled back a couple of points from Michael Argue and sub Philip Tinnelly but Roscommon were never even remotely in danger and won pulling up.

Hyland refused to use the long list of absentees – including All-Star nominee Killian Clarke and top scorer Martin Dunne – as an excuse for his team's capitulation.

“You have to use the players that are available to you. We could use the excuse of the lads that aren't here – we have to look to the lads that are here. They're the lads we have to work with, they're the fellas that stuck with Cavan this year and that's what it's about,” he said.

“You have to make your own luck and make your own breaks and we just weren't doing that today.”

 

Scorers for Cavan: M Reilly 0-2, E Keating 0-1, M Argue 0-1, P Tinnelly 0-1

Scorers for Roscommon: D Murtagh 0-5 (3f), E Smith 0-4, C Cregg 0-3 (1f), C Daly 0-2, D Smith 0-2

 

Cavan: C Gilsenan; J McLoughlin, K Brady, F Flanagan; J Hayes, J McEnroe, R Maloney-Derham; M Argue, G McKiernan; D O'Reilly, M Lyng, N McDermott; J Brady, E Keating, M Reilly. Subs: M McKeever for Hayes (HT), D Givney for Lyng (46), P Tinnelly for R Maloney-Derham (49), T Mooney for McDermott (54), N Murray for J Brady (57), T Corr for Argue (65)

Roscommon: D O'Malley; S McDermott, N Carty, N Collins; D Keenan, N Daly, C Cafferkey; C Shine, K Higgins; D O'Gara, E Smith, C Daly; S Kilbride, C Cregg, D Murtagh. Subs: R Stack for Keenan (HT), D Smith for O'Gara (54), M Nally for C Daly (61), I Kilbride for Smith (65), M Finneran for Higgins (66), C Murtagh for D Murtagh (69)

 Referee: Barry Cassidy (Derry)