Juniors record gutsy win over Louth
Louth 1-9
Cavan 1-10
Paul Fitzpatrick
Cavan juniors recorded a gutsy win over Louth at a bright and blustery Dowdallshill last evening (Wednesday) to book their place in the last four of the Leinster JFC for the fourth successive year.
Cavan goaled after ten seconds through Chris Conroy and, with the aid of the wind, were the better side in the first half, after which they led by 1-3 to 0-4, David Hyland, Niall Murray and Conroy again providing the points.
Conor Madden had won a lot of possession in the opening half but struggled to make an impact on the scoreboard, although his distribution was impressive.
Facing into a low sun and the breeze, Cavan struggled for periods in the second half. Turloc Mooney lost the ball in the sun and Louth pounced for a well-taken goal from Cathal Bellew to turn the game on its head.
Cavan made some changes, with Mooney going off, Oisin Minagh to full-back and Paul Graham coming into the attack and along with the introduction of Michael Argue, this helped shore things up.
With Dara McVeety having an outstanding match, Cavan hung on throughout the third quarter and after points from Barry Reilly – who nailed a 45 and a free-kick from 50 metres – Cavan stayed in touch.
The visitors’ use of possession was exemplary as they played “keep-ball” in the closing stages, Ross Sheridan getting on the end of a move to make it 1-10 to 1-8.
Louth had the final score from James Califf but Cavan held possession for a full two minutes in injury time before ref Garryowen McMahon blew it up in the 75th minute.
Among those to impress were McVeety, Minagh and Niall O’Reilly, while Barry Reilly and sub Graham also caught the eye at times.
See next week’s paper for full report.