Crunch clash for Cavan against Louth

By Niall Gartland

AT half time of last weekend’s Division Two meeting of Cavan and Kildare, word filtered through that Louth had plotted an upset against Tyrone.

Dermot McCabe’s side were three points in arrears at the interval, and Louth’s win spelled potential bad news. The need to pick up a first league win at the fourth time of asking was even more pressing than before throw-in, and they rose to the challenge and more.

The Breffni County came good in the second half en route to a 0-16 to 0-13 victory, a massive win but they’re by no means out of the woods just yet – nowhere near really.

But if they pick up a second successive victory when they host Louth on Saturday at 5.15pm, it could have potentially seismic repercussions in the battle for survival.

It would also flag up their flat showing a week back against Tyrone as your quintessential bad day at the office given they really should have won their first two league matches against Meath and Cork. ‘What ifs’ are a wonderful thing, though.

As things stand, Cavan sit second-from-bottom in the table with two points from four games. Tyrone and Kildare aren’t faring so hot either with three points apiece, while Louth’s campaign could really go either way – Gavin Devlin’s side have four points to their name with three rounds remaining. The entire division is a shark tank really.

Louth are a solid team – and arguably underrated. They were deserving Leinster champions in 2025, they have plenty of physical presence in the middle, and Sam Mulroy is one of the top forwards in the game.

Cavan will take a great deal of confidence from their win over Kildare, and only for a spurt of wayward shooting in the first half, could have gone on to record an even greater victory.

The jury is still out on Cavan’s overall ceiling, but if they overcome Louth, they’d be strongly fancied to overcome a struggling Offaly side in the penultimate round and that could well be enough to stay up – only time will tell.