Cavan beat Leitrim in challenge
Cavan 1-25 Leitrim 2-18 Eamonn Gaffney CAVAN's preparations for their Ulster championship meeting with Donegal on Sunday week continued when they played Leitrim in a challenge game at Kingspan Breffni Park on Tuesday night of last week. Both sides took the opportunity of using the subs bench throughout the 80 minute game. After a closely-fought first-half at the end of which the sides were level 1-8 each, Cavan's goal coming from Brendan Fitzpatrick after only four minutes, further Cavan scores came from Robert-Maloney Derham, Ray Cullivan and Niall McDermott, two points each, Brendan Fitzpatrick (two frees) and David Givney one point. Leitrim's goal came from a penalty. During that first half, Under-21 player Kevin Tierney came into the attack. The other substitution was Feargal Flanagan. James Reilly took over the goalkeeping position from Keith Fanning for the second-half a nd Cavan took the lead with a point from Niall Smith after a barely one minute. The scores were level on two more occasions before Cavan went in front with points from Benny Fitzpatrick and from another replacement Jack Brady with Niall Smith adding to the total, leaving Cavan three points in front, 1-14 to 1-11 after eleven minutes. Leitrim countered with three points with Kevin Tierney adding one in between those two scores. With some twenty minutes remaining only one point separated the teams before Cavan put on a spurt with points from John McCutcheon and Benny Fitzpatrick, two frees. With the score 1-20 to 1-17 in Cavan's favour and some ten minutes remaining, Leitrim got through for their second goal followed by a point. Leitrim were now leading by one point, 2-18 to 1-20, Cavan stepped up the pace and points from Jack Brady (two), Robert Maloney-Derham and Kevin Tierney eased the home side through to a four point win. Cavan: Keith Fannin; Killian Clarke, Damien Reilly, Jason McLoughlin; Kevin Meehan, Eugene Keating, Robert Maloney-Derham (0-3); David Givney (0-1), John McCutcheon (0-1); Niall Smith (0-2), Mark McKeever, Ronan Flanagan (0-1); Brendan Fitzpatrick (1-5), Ray Cullivan (0-2), Niall McDermott (0-2) Subs: Jack Brady (0-3), Kevin Tierney (0-4), James Reilly, Ronan Flanagan (0-1), Feargal Flanagan