‘We were dragged through the media when they had nothing else to write about’

Reaction

Cavan manager Mickey Graham’s record in the Ulster Senior Championship now reads played 10, won seven, drew one, lost two. The Cavan Gaels clubman has proven himself to be very much a “championship manager” who has the knack of priming his team for when it matters most and that was the case again here.

While Cavan’s shooting was poor in the first half, in most aspects of play they were impressive and once they began to find their range in front of the posts in the second half, the visitors tore Antrim apart.

The furore around where the game would be played added motivational fuel for Cavan, not Antrim, Graham explained after the match.

“We just blocked that out of our minds, we used it more as a motivating factor than anything else,” he said.

“We were probably dragged through the media there for a few weeks when they had nothing else to write about but we just wanted to just come up and prove that it didn’t matter where it was played, we wanted to put in a performance.”

Cavan played into the teeth of a swirling wind in the first half which made things very difficult.

“It was [a very strong wind], I don’t think people realise that. We created a lot of great chances against that wind, we didn’t take them and we were a wee bit frustrated but at half-time, we couldn’t really fault the lads. They were doing an awful lot right, it was just their execution and we just said if we tidied that up in the second half, things would happen and that was exactly the way it panned out.

“Once we got a bit of momentum going and were winning clean ball at midfield, the lads all wanted to get a piece of the action and that can happen sometimes. We know that bigger challenges lie ahead now to be honest.”

Cavan have now won eight of nine matches this season, the only blip being a loss to Tipperary in the group stage of the league which was later avenged in the final at Croke Park. The squad has been getting stronger as the season has gone on, too, with Martin Reilly and Ciaran Brady – the latter of whom hadn’t played for club or county for a year due to an ACL injury – both featuring off the bench.

Graham also confirmed that Oisin Kiernan is close to a return to action as well.

“It is getting stronger, we are getting a couple more bodies back next week too and that will only help things and drive everybody on.

“Great to see Ciaran back, he’s a real leader on the team and a great fella around the squad. Even when he was injured, he was always a great motivator and it’s just great to see him back playing after that injury that he had.

“We could have taken a chance on Oisin today, he trained with us during the week but we felt this game just came too soon for him.”

At the time of speaking, Graham was unaware who the opponents in the Ulster semi-final would be.

“To be honest it doesn’t matter which one it is because it’s going to be a huge daunting task for us, two strong teams with their eyes on bigger prizes. We’ll just have to wait and see who comes through and then start planning.”

The Cavan players opted not to conduct interviews after the match.