By Michael McMullan

SUNDAY’S clash of Drumlane and Killinkere is a crunch game for both teams in the Cavan Intermediate Championship insists Killinkere manager Ciarán O’Malley.

After losing to Bailieborough, Killinkere bounced back to beat Cornafean while Drumlane have yet to pick up any points.

With the top eight making the quarter-finals after four rounds of games and the bottom four – in a 14-team group stage – things really heat up this weekend.

“Sunday is a massive game for both teams,” O’Malley told Gaelic Life. “The championship in Cavan, the format leaves it right up to the last game. You could be in with a chance or you could be gone as well. It’s a very important game for ourselves and it’s an extremely important game for Drumlane.”

O’Malley took over from Gerard O’Kane as manager at the start of the season and with a knowledge of the Cavan scene, he knows exactly what is coming down the tracks this weekend.

“They’re a good team, Drumlane are a very good team,” he said of their opponents. “They are well coached well managed with Martin Dunne. Mickey Graham could be involved there as well. They’ve a good set of forwards and are very strong in the middle of the field.”

Killinkere came through by a point when the sides met in the league back in May and there was the kick of a ball between them last year.

“There is not going to be a whole pile in it,” O’Malley predicts about Sunday’s clash in Kingspan Breffni.

“They have Ryan Connolly in there. He is an excellent forward and they’ve Cormac Flynn up there too. They had a lot of good young lads in the back, a good bit of pace to them as well they’ll be coming out all guns blazing as well. They lost their first two games so they’ll be looking for points on Sunday.”

From their own point of view, the championship has been a mixed bag, coming after a disappointing end to the league.

“We were poor against Bailieborough,” he said of their 0-17 to 0-9 opening day championship outing. “They were good as well but we feel we didn’t show up and then against Cornafean we won by 11. It was probably just a reaction to the first day and we played a lot better.

“It would have been 50-50 going in against Bailieborough but we had a poor end to the league and Bailieborough had come up from Division Three last year. They had a great league and ended up in the league semi-final, so they probably had form coming in.”

After winning the first two league games, there was a win over Bailieborough before a dip in the second half of the season.

Three starting forwards, Cian McGovern, Conall Mooney and Jason McMahon, went travelling on J1s. That lessened their hand before their return ahead of the championship.

McGovern and Mooney were back 48 hours before the Bailieborough defeat with McMahon back for the win over Cornafean.

“We were a lot stronger that day,” O’Malley added. “We got a couple of injuries against Bailieborough the first few minutes.

“Our starting midfielder all year, Fintan O’Connell, went off injured. He’ll definitely miss this weekend as well.”

Daniel Sweeney also picked up an injury in the Bailieborough game. Peter McCabe, one of their key players, came back from a broken leg before pulling a quad towards the end of the league and isn’t expected back until Round Four.