ULSTER CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL

Donegal v Cavan

Sunday, Clones, 4pm

By Niall Gartland

CAVAN have a fighting chance of springing another upset against Donegal if they can sufficiently impose themselves in the battle for midfield supremacy, according to Cian Mackey.

Mackey, who was one of the finest Cavan players of his generation, hung up the boots in January 2020.

Later that year, the Breffni County stunned Donegal in an Ulster final played behind closed doors on a dark November night, and Mackey believes that they need to adopt a similarly brave approach if they’re to repeat the trick this weekend.

“I was worried about Donegal’s physical presence around the middle before the 2020 game, but Cavan were brave enough to go toe-to-toe with their opponents and press up on the kick-outs.

“I felt that was a huge reason why Cavan won that day. If you sit back against Donegal, the outcome is practically inevitable as they’re probably the best team in the country at keeping the ball and working their scores.”

While Cavan were convincing winners over Antrim in their opening outing in the Ulster Championship, Mackey is concerned that a lack of experience of playing the top teams over the last 12 months could come back to haunt them.

“Donegal look in great shape at the minute and really turned the screw on Armagh so it’ll be an interesting one.

“Cavan’s potential downfall could be not having played a competitive game against a team like Donegal. The last time they played a top, top team was against Tyrone in last year’s championship.

“It’ll be interesting to see where exactly we stand, but coming in as underdogs tends to suit Cavan and I don’t think we’ll go down without a fight. We matched Donegal in the middle before, so if we can at least break even, we should be right in the mix.”

Looking back on that famous win over Donegal in 2020, Mackey accepts their opponents were a bit complacent heading into the match, but that Cavan can take a lot of heart from how they fended off a Donegal fightback and finished out the game in style.

“I was lucky enough to be at that match as I was covering it for the BBC. Donegal probably had taken the eye off the ball, but they still got back into the game after a slow start and Cavan were able to kick on. Cavan were first to every ball, they had more hunger and drive on the day. There was definitely a second kick in Cavan, it was their best 70-minute performance of the year and it came at the perfect time as well.”

They haven’t always been able to say this, but Cavan can boast a really good panel of players at this present moment – a good ‘problem’ for their manager Mickey Graham. They eased past Antrim in the quarters, and they’ll be quietly confident of giving Donegal a real game of it.

“There’s a huge amount of talent there at the moment, you’ve four or five forwards on the bench alone who are pushing to start.

“Conor Madden isn’t getting game-time and is a top player, Martin Reilly is a great option, and Conor Moynagh’s been pushed into the forward line with Gerry Smith because of other men coming back and playing in the half-back line. (Ciaran) ‘Holla’ Brady is coming back and that’s huge for us as well. It does push lads on as they know if they’re not playing well, they’re not going to be starting.”

If Cavan fail to reach the Ulster final, they’ll be pitted in the B-tier competition, the Tailteann Cup. Mackey says it mightn’t do them any harm if that comes to pass as it would prove a timely kick up the backside.

“There’s two ways of looking at it – you want to be able to play against the best teams, but some simply aren’t capable of it. If you look at Dublin’s win over Wexford, it was a waste of time for all involved. At least Wexford can give it a real go in the ‘B’ competition.

“Winning is a habit and that proved to be the case with Cavan in Division Four. Personally I believe Cavan are a Division Two side on paper so while the Tailteann Cup isn’t where they want to be, it could be a kick in the ass for them, and they’ll be pushing hard next year to get promoted to Division Two. They’ll be frustrated if they do lose to Donegal, but I believe they’ll take the Tailteann Cup seriously and want to get another bit of silverware in the cabinet.”