Cavans made their exit from the Bank of Ireland Doctor McKenna Cup tonight in Kingspan Breffini Park with a 4 point defeat to University of Ulster Jordanstown by 0-19 to 0-15, meanwhile Fermanagh had a victory over Antrim by 0-19 to 0-05. That better scoring difference for Fermanagh got them into the last four. Ahead of the match- There were a number of changes for the Breffini County side with Shane O’Rourke, Conor Madden and Peter McCabe getting their first starts at senior level. Jason McLoughlin, Joshua Hayes, Conor Moynagh, Dara McVeety, Brian Sankey, Rory Dunne and Paul O’Connor all coming into the starting side.
Mattie McGleenan’s side had come into the game following two great wins over Donegal and their first win over Tyrone in 17 years. They started well in their match with UUJ scoring the first five points in the opening 14 minutes. The college side came back into and at half time the score was reading Cavan 0-08 UUJ 0-07. UUJ manager Martin McHugh introduced his big stars for the second half in Paddy McBrearty, Mark Bradley, Ryan McHugh and Ryan McAnespie with McBrearty and Bradley scoring 0-08 of their 0-12 second half total to sway the game in the favour of the Hogan Cup champions.
It was the first defeat in Mattie McGleenans spell in charge of the newly promoted Division one side. The former Tyrone player spoke with Northern Sounds Reporter Mickey Brennan after the game and he outlined that it was a ‘Great learning curve for us right now, this level is unforgiving and today we were found out. We had three or four chances at 5 nil up but didn’t take them. The switches they made in the second half worked and they pushed on. Our shot selection let us down. I’ll learn a lot from tonight, you learn a lot from when you lose and we are playing at a huge level and to play at division one in a couple of weeks will be another step up’.
He added further ‘We all know, we let ourselves down tonight, but listen welcome to football we will learn from it they are a fantastic group of men’. The former Scotstown manager explained ‘they are hurting in the dressing room which is a good sign going forward’.
He highlighted the validity of the competition saying ‘ I really enjoy the competition and it’s a good kick up the ass. We haven’t had a lot of time training ground time our handling kick passing and scoring skills. We will need to improve and we will work on it over the next three weeks’
Cavan will enter into Division one football in three weeks time and Mattie McGlennan told Mickey ‘it will be a serious test. That level of football will challenge us to be better footballers and I’m looking forward to it. Were we complacent tonight? well, if we were then that won’t happen next time’.
Heres his conversation with Mickey Brennan after the match
Elsewhere Monaghan are through to the last four with a 1-13 to 0-10 win over Saint Marys. Tyrone also sealed their place in the semi finals Cup with a 2-23 to 0-6 win over Donegal Armagh were 1-15 to 2-8 winners over Down. Derry defeated Queen’s by 2-19 to 0-05. Monaghan will now take on Derry in Armagh and Tyrone will face Fermanagh in Clones in the semi-finals of the Bank of Ireland Doctor McKenna cup on Sunday.
