Galligan 'immensely proud' but 'that's football'

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After a gut-wrenching defeat, Cavan manager Raymond Galligan was philosophical. Asked his immediate reaction, the Lacken clubman stressed that he couldn’t have asked for any more in terms of effort from his players.

“That’s football I suppose, there’s always going to be a winner and a loser when you have tight games like that,” the former goalkeeper stated.

“I’m immensely proud of the lads, the effort and the honesty from each and every man that started and came off the bench so in that regard I couldn’t ask for any more but it’s just very disappointing for the lads because they probably deserved a little better.”

Cavan, he said, could have won the match in normal time, despite being eight points down midway through the second half.

“I think so, you had huge momentum there in the last 15, 20 minutes but at the same time, in extra time there was still only a point in at half-time and we got turned over cheaply once or twice. When it went back to two it was difficult but even at the end there, you had an opportunity maybe to get a shot off… but that’s the way it goes.

“But look, all in all, we had opportunities in the first half, four balls dropped into the keeper’s hands. If that gap was a little narrower at half-time you would have had a little less to do. I’ll have to look back and see.”

That first-half performance, in which Cavan struggled to contain Tyrone at one end and missed good chances at the other, proved costly.

“We had seven wides in the first half and I think they might have had only one or two. The big thing was we stepped off the kick-out at times in the first half and I think it kind of worked, but they scored 1-6 from our turnovers – that’s from bringing ball into the tackle, something you just cannot do.

“We knew they lived off turnovers throughout the league so giving a team like Tyrone oxygen, bringing the ball into the tackle… But I thought we regrouped and worked extremely hard in the second half on staying in control and keeping that ball and running harder lines and it got us back into the game.”

While Cavan’s winless streak against the Red Hands in championship now stretches to 11 games, it wasn’t something Galligan referenced in the build-up.

“The narrative all week was it was all about us, we’re definitely not in the business of looking behind us and looking at the records because that only brings a burden on the players. For us it was just about bringing our game, we probably didn’t get enough depth in our game, bringing more bodies ahead of the attack in the first half.

“That can be for an array of different reasons but I thought in the second half by just getting more runners, more energy and keeping the ball out of contact, it really paid dividends for us to get back into the game.”

Tyrone hadn’t given away many scoreable frees throughout the league and that was the case again here, denying Cavan’s freetaker Paddy Lynch many opportunities.

“They’re a seasoned, seasoned team in the sense that they have come up against the best of forwards in the last number of weeks in the likes of the Galways and the Kerrys and the Dublins and they’re really disciplined defenders. Definitely I think we caused them lots of problems when we ran at them and engaged the sweeper.

“Paddy didn’t score the same tally as he did the previous day but I thought he worked relentlessly hard, coming back and getting turnovers in our defence, I thought he had a really workmanlike performance, no different than the rest of the lads.”

Galligan felt Cormac O’Reilly made a big impact off the bench.

“Cormac is direct, the type of guy that no defender wants coming on in the second half. He won a number of frees, really impressed with Cormac’s performance. He’s been patient, he’s worked very hard behind the scenes and I’m delighted that he took his opportunity today.”

Regarding the team selection and going without the likes of McLoughlin, Clarke and Smith, he said: “We put a major emphasis on workrate and we were confident that no matter who started, they were going to give us absolutely everything. Numbers on your back was kind of irrelevant at times today, you were getting up and down the field and doing your job.

“We were missing experienced players but it was just unfortunate that they were in a race against time to get back in, they only had one full training session under their belts on Wednesday night and it just wasn’t enough to start them. Lads worked hard and they knew themselves they just weren’t up to fitness, especially when you were looking at the heart out there today.

“But I think when they came off the bench they gave us huge energy and they really showed the leadership and the experience there for us. That was great to see.

We’re going to go off now, put the head down, hopefully add strength to the panel over the next couple of weeks and really embrace the All-Ireland series and see where it takes us.

“We’re after playing two huge teams in Monaghan and Tyrone, that’s the level you want to be playing at because it’s the only way we’re going to know where we’re at in the sense that playing the top teams is how you improve and you learn.

“We’re really looking forward to it now, obviously we’re hugely disappointed not to be in a semi-final next week. It’s going to be difficult now for Tyrone with such a quick turnaround, it’s going to be hard for them to get back ready to go but for ourselves, we’re just going to look forward to it, we’re going to train really hard and try and improve things and see where it takes us.”

Referees generally come in for criticism after tight games but Galligan felt David Coldrick had a good game.

“I thought David did a fine job. We had opportunities to win the game and the controversial calls, the fine margins, I’d have to look back on the video to see but overall I thought David did a good enough job.

“It’s not an easy place to be, you had a great atmosphere there, I thought the support and the way the Cavan people came out in droves and came on to the field after to show their appreciation, I was just delighted to see that because to me it’s one of the best stadiums in the country and when it was rocking there in the last 20 minutes, that’s compliment to the Cavan people getting out in numbers and pushing the lads on.

“Fair play to everybody that showed up here today.”