Cavan must put poor home record behind them to topple Tyrone

Preview

It’s a curious quirk of history that while Tyrone are undoubtedly Cavan’s bogey team, they are the only county in Ulster yet to win a championship match at Kingspan Breffni – or plain old Breffni Park, as it was known back in the day.

Okay, so the sides have rarely met at the venue but still, the point stands. While Cavan have built up endless scar tissue from bruising encounters with the Red Hands, it hasn’t accumulated at home – not in the championship, anyway.

The last time the sides met at the Cavan venue was also the most recent occasion in which Cavan beat Tyrone in championship: June 19, 1983, when a masterclass in place-kicking from Martin Lynch helped Cavan to a 0-11 to 0-10 win.

This Sunday (throw-in 4pm, ref David Coldrick), the sides will do battle again. While there was a disappointing turnout for Cavan’s opening round, with a win under their belts now and fine weather – at last – forecast, Cavan county board are anticipating an attendance in the region of 8-10,000.

That is set to fall well short of their expectations and perhaps speaks to wider issues in the game at present; the response in Cavan is said to be quite positive but there is “apathy” in Tyrone according to one informed source.

Cavan, installed as 2/1 underdogs, should be stronger than last time, with the experienced duo of Killian Clarke and Jason McLoughlin said to be back in contention, having missed the Monaghan game due to injury.

There are reasons for optimism. Paddy Lynch, scorer of 2-55 in his last eight matches, has elevated his game and his freetaking in particular has been outstanding.

The main concern is the assistance he is getting up front. Gerry Smith was exceptional last time out, with Oisin Brady (0-1) the only other member of the front eight to score.

At the back, Cavan have been relatively mean, with four clean sheets to date, but Tyrone’s attack will be the best they’ve faced since the Armagh game.

Darren McCurry, Darragh Canavan and Cathal McShane are all household names and all scored in their 2021 All-Ireland final success while the younger Canavan, Ruairi, caused Cavan U20s untold problems in the 2022 Ulster final in that grade.

Do Cavan have the defenders to mark them all? Killian Brady had one of the best games in his long career last time out, Cian Reilly impressed and Brían O’Connell was excellent but this will mark a major step-up in class over a jaded Monaghan offensive line-up.

There is always the option of switching Padraig Faulkner to the full-back line, where he won an All-Star in 2020, but the Kingscourt man, joint-captain of the team, has been playing very well further out the field, where his physical power and aerial threat have been a major addition this year.

It seems likely, then, that one or both of Clarke and McLoughlin will return. Otherwise, there are unlikely to be changes; James Smith went off injured the last day but is expected to be fit to take his place.

In the 12 championship meetings since 1983, Cavan have shipped some heavy losses against Tyrone and have really only come close on a handful of occasions, notably the draws in the 2005 and 2016 Ulster SFC semi-finals, which were followed by 21-point and 10-point replay wins for Tyrone respectively.

In 2018, Cavan were handed a home draw against the O’Neill County in the qualifiers but with Kingspan Breffni out of commission, they opted to play the game in Brewster Park, with then-Tyrone manager Mickey Harte criticising Cavan’s lack of ambition for forgoing the option of playing in Croke Park.

As it turned out, in scorching conditions, Cavan went down by 0-18 to 1-12 on that occasion, one of the more creditable showings against Tyrone, who have also held the whip hand in National League clashes in recent decades.

Still, that run surely has to end somewhere and maybe home advantage in the championship against Tyrone for the first time in 41 years could lift Cavan. Against that, Cavan’s home record is dreadful; since round seven of the league in 2023, Cavan have played Fermanagh twice, Armagh, Down, Laois, Meath, Derry, Down and Donegal across three competitions at Kingspan Breffni and have only one win from those eight matches.

There is certainly a sense that Tyrone can be got at. Their 2021 All-Ireland winning side seems to have broken up, with half of them seeing little or no game time this season so far. They have kept just one clean sheet this year, which is most unTyrone-like, too.

But they still managed to finish fifth in Division 1 which shows that while Tyrone dip from time to time, they never fall too far.

To win, Cavan probably need a greater spread of scorers than we have seen of late - the likes of Cian Madden, Oisin Brady, Ciaran Brady, Gerry Smith et al will in all likelihood need to contribute - and for Lynch to produce another flawless display from dead balls.

Before the Monaghan game, manager Ray Galligan demanded the best performance of the season. He got it but now, he needs it again two weeks later and that is not easily achieved by any side.

Is it doable? Of course. Cavan are capable of winning this match but the consistency is not there, and hasn’t been for a long time, which, along with the Tyrone hoodoo, make it impossible to predict a home victory on this occasion.