'Brady and Faulkner key in Sligo win' - Graham

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At half-time, things were looking slightly iffy for Cavan as they trailed by 0-6 to 0-2 against fellow promotion hopefuls Sligo. Or, at least that was how it appeared but, said Breffni boss Mickey Graham, there was no panic in the visiting ranks.

The wind, which favoured the home side in the first half, was much stronger than it seemed from the stand, Graham pointed out, although, he said, it did wane as the match wore on and was not as much of an advantage to Cavan in the second half.

Regardless, while some of the breaks fell the way of the away side, they worked hard and Graham was entitled to reflect with a good degree of satisfaction on the day’s work in the west.

“Without a doubt [it was a good day’s work], Markievicz Park isn’t an easy place to go and they’d been going quite well, I know they had a bit of a hiccup last week against Tipperary, they were looking to get back on track today,” Graham told the Anglo-Celt after the game.

“We got a wee bit of the rub of the green today to be honest, they had a red card and obviously we got a lucky goal but sometimes you maker your own luck and I felt we worked hard enough to make that luck.

“When I came out after half-time, that was the first thing I said, ‘that wind is gone!’

“There was a very strong wind there in the first half, people mightn’t realise it. They had a lot of bodies back and made life difficult for us. We tried to work it to a certain area. We missed two or three frees that we normally would bank on,

“But look, four points down against that wind, we were happy enough at half-time with where we were. We knew that we had to tidy up our own kick-out and maybe tidy up a few other things and I thought we did that.

Key for Cavan were defenders Killian Brady and Padraig Faulkner. The Mullahoran-Kingscourt axis succeeded in snuffing out the threat of Sligo’s danger men, imposing themselves physically on the game and forcing turnovers. Faulkner got up for an important point and Brady put in some hard, fair hits which raised the tempo all over the pitch.

“The lads were immense and they really set the tone and drove the thing on from back there,” Graham said.

“Sligo have very good inside forwards as we know in Murphy and Hughes, two top forwards who can win their own ball, but I thought those two boys were just immense and they set the tone for the rest of the team.

“The rest of the team grew in energy from what those lads brought to the game. What you see is what you get with those two lads and it was great, delighted for them.”

As the game wore on, Cavan settled down and began to play more confidently, particularly in attack where there had been numerous errors earlier on.

“They started to open up and grow in confidence. We emptied the bench as well and brought on five substitutes and they brough freshness to it as well, fresh legs and the ability to get up in support and I just thought we saw out the game well in the last five or 10 minutes.

“As I said, they were down to 14 men and that probably started to show too.”

Cavan were missing a lot of players for this trip, with injuries, suspensions and several left off for disciplinary reasons.

“We are down a lot of bodies at the moment, there’s no denying that. When we get all those bodies fixed up and get them back, there’s going to be great competition for places.

“But it’s days like this when you’re thin on the ground for bodies and you come down to a place like this, you see the depth and see the character of the squad and I thought we showed that today.

“I didn’t even look at it to be honest. We want to get a win next week, we’re not looking any further than that. We just want to keep the momentum going, consistency needs improving. We got a wee bit of improving today and there’s lots more areas where we need to improve.”

Next up for Cavan is the visit of Tipperary next Sunday (Kingspan Breffni, 2pm), where a win would ensure a quick return to Division 3 for next year.