By Michael McMullan

CAVAN Gaels have a winner-takes-all clash with Killygarry on Sunday afternoon as the senior race heads towards the knock-out stages.

Declan McCoy’s side secured a much-needed win over Castlerahan, with the Shehu brothers to the fore, after coming up short in their first two games against unbeaten Gowna and Kingscourt.

The Dromintee man took over this season and Gaels stepped into the league with a raft of players missing with injury, county duty and with Gearóid McKiernan not on board, with plans to move back to his native Swanlinbar.

“We just blooded lads because you had no choice,” McCoy said of their league campaign.

With the exception of a heavy 3-18 to 0-9 defeat to Gowna, every game came down to the kick of a ball, including three draws.

“We were happy enough to work on how we’re trying to play in the league and give boys football,” McCoy said of their approach.

“Ordinarily I want to win everything, the league, championship, win everything, but we just had to use the league to try and get the system going.”

The Gaels lost to Kingscourt by a point in a game that could’ve gone either way. Despite the frustration, there was satisfaction in the level of performance.

“In the second game, Gowna would’ve be fancied to give us a bit of a trimming,” McCoy added.

“We missed five goal chances which was a killer. With three minutes to go, we were two points down and missed two goal chances to go ahead and didn’t take them.”

The 1-20 to 0-17 left the Gaels needing a victory to give them a chance of finishing in the top eight and a spot in the quarter-finals.

Despite having a zero-point tally on the table, McCoy insists there was no pressure going into their Castlerahan game.

“To be honest, we knew we were playing well and were hitting our performance markers.

“Maybe I was a bit naive, but no, I didn’t feel the pressure. I knew the performances were there and we just knew it was going to come.

“It wasn’t a case of, not playing well, not getting results and needing to get a win from somewhere.

“We actually got more shots than Gowna, they got one less shot than us. We were hitting our targets, just needed to polish things off a bit.”

Their win over Castlerahan was built on the performance of the Shehu brothers – Joshua, Emmanuel and Favour – the latter scoring five points from wing-back. Captain Padraig Sexton was also kicking scores.

Add in young players Conor Doyle and Ben Tully.

There is still the experience of Levi Murphy, Paul O’Connor, Andy and Paul Graham. Luke Molloy, John and Luke Fortune give them a solid spine for the younger players to grow around.

They’d need it all this weekend. A win over Killygarry and they are looking upwards in the table. A defeat would leave them relying on results elsewhere.

“It’s going to be winner-takes-all,” McCoy summed up. “Whoever wins that will go through, whoever doesn’t is in a really precarious position. It’s going to be a tough, tough game.”