Hyland goes out with head held high

Paul Fitzpatrick

Terry Hyland will “probably” continue to be involved in football at some level after he decided to step down after almost seven years as manager of the Cavan U21 and senior team respectively.
Speaking to The Anglo-Celt yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), Hyland said that he will look back on his tenure as county boss with fondness. He was warm in his praise for his back-room teams and players.
“I’m 57 years of age and I’m involved in football since I was 11 and in all that time there was only one year where I wasn’t, so I won’t be quitting completely,” he said.
There were plenty of highlights from his tenure, he said, starting at U21 level.
“I suppose reaching the first U21 final in 2010 was a real highlight, even though we didn’t win that final. It showed us that we could compete and could win and then we went on and won it the following year and reached an All-Ireland final,” said Terry.
“With the senior team, getting promotion to Division 1 was great, it was great for the players to reach the pinnacle of league football and reward for all their efforts.”
Asked if he would manage a team at club or county level again, he joked: “You’ll have to ask my wife that!”
“I have had four and a half good years at it. We’ve come probably from being on the brink of going to Division 4 to being in Division 1. They are where they should be, they’re quite capable of competing there and in fairness, we probably just tried to put in the measures and the platform for them to get there. And the county board facilitated all that.
“I have no doubt they have ability to do that [win an Ulster Championship]. This bunch of players is well capable of winning an Ulster title and even going further.
“This year, there were ifs, buts and maybes, if we had beaten Derry would we have been able to beat Tipp? And Tipp are in an All-Ireland semi-final.
“This is the level our players have to realise they’re at and can compete at. They just need consistency of performances to do that and it will come.”

See today's Anglo-Celt newspaper for full interview.