Cavan grind it out in Aughrim

Cavan 0-14

Wicklow 0-11

 

Paul Fitzpatrick

at Aughrim

 

Cavan's promotion hopes are still intact – barely – after they came through a gruelling test against Division 3 bottom side Wicklow at a freezing Aughrim today (Sunday).

The Breffni men played with the benefit of a gale-force breeze in the opening half but wasted a host of scoring opportunities as they craved out a precarious four-point interval lead, 0-8 to 0-4.

Cavan had 19 shots on goal in the opening half but poor decision-making and wasteful shooting kept the hosts in the game.

Wicklow led by 0-3 to 0-1 after eight minutes following points from Nicky Mernagh and Seanie Furlong (two frees), with Cian Mackey's excellent point on the run Cavan's only response.

Terry Hyland's men bossed the remainder of the half, however, with Gearoid McKiernan and the excellent Tomás Corr battling well at midfield, and scores from Martin Dunne (two from play and two frees), Eugene Keating, Martin Reilly and Corr saw them hit the front.

They picked up where they left off in the second half, Niall McDermott – who had a fine game – sending them 0-9 to 0-5 in front seconds into the half.

They missed a succession of chances before Furlong nicked two frees to draw his side to within two.

Cavan huffed and puffed but a litany of errors saw them fail to blow a resilient, but limited, Wicklow away but the introduction of Barry Reilly, Declan McKiernan and Ronan Flanagan – and the late dismissal of Wicklow's Steven Coen – finally swung things their way.

Four points in as many minutes from Dunne, who terrorised the full-back line, Declan McKiernan and Barry Reilly sealed the win and while Wicklow had the final say through Mernagh, Cavan ran out worthy three-point winners.

With Roscommon beating Monaghan and the Antrim v Meath match postponed, the win gives Hyland's side a lively outside chance of promotion going into the final round, where they will face Roscommon in Brefni Park.

Among those to impress were Corr, Martin Reilly, Martin Dunne and Gearoid McKiernan, while Declan McKiernan and Ronan Flanagan did very well when introduced.

 

Wicklow: J Flynn, D Power, L Benson, A Byrne, D Hayden, S Coen, D Healy, J Stafford, A McLoughlin, N Mernagh (0-3), P MacWalters, JP Dalton, S Furlong (0-5, all frees), A O'Malley (0-1), R Finn

Subs: J McGrath (0-2, one 45) for O'Malley (46 mins), P Dalton for Finn (51 mins), D Woods for MacWalters (51 mins)

 

Cavan: J Reilly, J Hayes, J McEnroe, O Minagh, P O'Reilly, A Clarke, J McCutcheon, T Corr (0-1), G McKiernan, C Mackey (0-1), M Reilly (0-1), N McDermott (0-1), D Givney, E Keating (0-1), M Dunne (0-7, 3f)

Subs: D McKiernan (0-1) for Keating (ht), K Meehan for Minagh (ht), R Flanagan for Hayes (50 mins), B Reilly (0-1) for Givney (55 mins)