By Niall Gartland

CAVAN legend Stephen King hopes that for the second time in this year’s campaign that Raymond Galligan’s side can successfully pick themselves back off the canvas.

The Breffni side gave a fairly tepid account of themselves in their Ulster Championship opener against Tyrone, whom they face again this Sunday, before springing a massive upset against Mayo in the first round of the All-Ireland series.

Now Stephen King is hoping that history can repeat itself. Cavan were clobbered by Donegal on their last day out, unraveling in the second half en route to a 19-point defeat. Their opponents finished their day’s work with 3-26, the highest tally ever conceded by Cavan in championship football, but all isn’t lost and they could still find themselves advancing from the group stages, even if they lose to Tyrone this weekend (that would be contingent on Donegal beating Mayo, basically).

The direct route is going out and doing a number on Tyrone – a feat easier said than done, particularly in light of their torrid losing record against the Red Hands stretching all the way back to 1983, an era when Killeshandra man King lorded the skies.

It’s all set up for an intriguing finale to the group stages and King hopes that they can at the very least restore pride after their second-half horror show against Donegal in Kingspan Breffni nearly a fortnight ago.

“I didn’t really see that result coming against Donegal, given we’d played so well against Mayo, we were fantastic that day and then we capitulated in the second half against Donegal. Losing so heavily isn’t a nice feeling, and now they have to dust themselves down and reinvent themselves again.

“I’d still be cautiously hopeful that we can give a good account of ourselves. When we ran against Mayo we caused them a lot of damage, and we did that for spells against Donegal as well. If we can replicate the energy we brought to the Mayo game, we shouldn’t be too far away. Personally I don’t really buy into all this talk that Tyrone have a hex on us – if you look back on results against Mayo over the last 100 years, they weren’t great either. I don’t think it really means all that much when the ball is thrown in.”

Tyrone, Cavan, Donegal and Mayo are deadlocked on two points each heading into the final round, and really anything could happen. For better or worse – and many commentators say for worse – the group stages are to be abolished in place of a qualifier-style series in 2026 – and King wonders whether the GAA are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

“It should be really exciting across all the groups this weekend. The Donegal and Mayo game is massive for both those teams as well, there’s plenty at stake and that’s what supporters want.

“I like the group stages, I think they’re fantastic, but the one issue is that it’s a bit strange that only four teams are eliminated across so many matches.

“It’s still a very good concept and if they tweaked that a wee bit, it would be basically perfect.”

The opening period of Cavan’s round-two encounter against Donegal was fairly even though they were knocked back on their heels with a goal after the hooter had sounded for half-time. That left seven points between the teams at half time and Donegal never looked back, steamrolling their opponents on a day to forget for the Cavan men.

“That goal was a bit of a disaster. We’d been playing fairly well, I was happy with their pace and work-rate, we were still really in the game.

“We had possession, made a bit of a mess of it and they punished us after the hooter was gone, and it really lifted the Donegal support, they brought massive numbers to Breffni and you have to credit them for now they get behind their team.

“Then, in the second half they basically rolled us over. They dominated the middle with Hugh McFadden and Ciarán Thompson, and I thought Ciarán Moore at wing half-back was absolutely outstanding, the way he drove at Cavan.

“And everyone’s talking about Michael Murphy and rightly so. I just think he’s one of the greatest players of all-time. He’s so strong, so composed, he has all the skills and I think he’s a huge asset to Donegal at the minute – he’s a joy to watch.”

Related posts:

Reilly expects a Donegal backlash in Breffni clash A strong Cavan hand as Raymond Galligan names his squad for Donegal visit Donegal name their pack for Cavan showdown

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