FLASHBACK: The team who put Cavan back on the map

Paul Fitzpatrick looks back on Cavan U21s' momentous run to the 1996 All-Ireland final.

By the dawn of 1995, Cavan football seemed to be in a bad place. The senior team had been beaten in the first round of the Ulster Championship for seven successive years; with no back door, their summers ended early and with each exit came a diminishing of confidence.

In 1988, an U21 side containing the likes of Damien O’Reilly, Fintan Cahill and Ronan Carolan stormed to the Ulster title and made it to the All-Ireland final. Luck went against them; between the semi-final win over Galway and the final against Offaly, freetaker Carolan broke his leg playing club football in Dublin and could only watch on helplessly on crutches as his teammates lost the final by two points.

But with the minors also reaching the Ulster final that year, hopes were high that success would follow at U21 level and naturally feed into the senior breakthrough the county craved.

It didn’t happen; the form of the U21s was disastrous for the following six campaigns, during which they failed to win a game and, in fact, were usually not even competitive, posting some dismal scoring tallies. 

In 1989, Cavan U21s lost in the first round to a Peter Canavan-inspired Tyrone in Omagh, 3-6 to 0-5. The following year, after drawing (2-3 to 1-6) with Tyrone, they were beaten by 3-12 to 0-3 in the replay at Coalisland.

In 1991 and ’92, Fermanagh dismantled them, 0-17 to 0-7 and 2-11 to 1-5 respectively before Derry came through (2-3 to 0-4) in ’93 and Armagh won (1-8 to 1-6) in ’94. 

So, by the time the 1995 Ulster U21 Championship threw in, supporters could be forgiven for viewing the glass as half empty. In their previous seven matches (including a replay) in the competition, Cavan had won none and, shockingly, their average score was 6.4 points per game.

But Martin McHugh had taken over as senior manager the previous autumn and there was a buzz around again. 

The opening round pitted Cavan against Antrim in Kingscourt and they romped to a 3-15 to 0-6 win.

Mickey Graham had made his starting debut the week before for the seniors, who turned in a creditable performance in the National League semi-final against Derry, losing by a goal in the Athletic Grounds.

Also on board against Antrim were Dermot McCabe, returning from injury, and Peter Reilly, who was Cavan’s Man of the Match on the day. Next time out, they beat an Armagh side containing Oisin McConville and Diarmuid Marsden by 1-10 to 0-4 to set up an Ulster final appearance against a Donegal side powered by Damien Diver, Adrian Sweeney, Brian Roper and Donal Buggy, who would later win a SFC medal with Cavan Gaels.

A McCabe goal in the 10th minute sent Cavan into a 1-4 to 0-1 lead but they couldn’t hammer it home and a late Buggy free drew it. Donegal won the replay by 3-11 to 1-11 but Cavan had gained greatly from the experience.