By Niall Gartland

CAVAN legend Jim Reilly expects a backlash when Jim McGuinness’ Donegal come to town this Sunday – but he’s cautiously optimistic that the Breffni County will be able to absorb whatever comes their way.

While the Breffni County got off to a winning start in their All-Ireland round robin victory with an entirely unexpected victory over Mayo, Donegal suffered a chastening defeat to Tyrone at Ballybofey last Saturday evening, very much taking the wind out of their sails after the high of clinching back-to-back Ulster titles.

For Donegal, it was a real shock to the system on a number of levels – never before had they fallen to a championship defeat at Ballybofey under the tutelage of Jim McGuinness, and now they face an uphill battle if they’re to go on and top the group.

Cavan, meanwhile, were in buoyant mood after plotting a memorable upset over Mayo and now the question of the hour is whether they can string together back-to-back victories. If they do, they’ll be 100 percent sure of qualification, and not only that, would be in a strong position to finish top of the group ahead of their third and final round encounter against Tyrone in a fortnight’s time.

And Jim Reilly believes it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that they spring another surprise, though it certainly won’t be easy against a wounded Donegal team.

“I suppose the fear is that there could be a bit of a backlash this weekend, but it’s a free shot for Cavan and I definitely think we can put it up to them.

“In saying that I don’t think that was the real Donegal against Tyrone – having won Ulster, it might have been difficult to get settled again, so I think they’ll be a lot better on Sunday.”

There’s mixed news on the injury front from a Cavan perspective. The Mayo game saw the long-awaited return of their attacking fulcrum Paddy Lynch, while Oisin Brady also featured having missed their championship opener against Tyrone. Sean McEvoy was forced off against Mayo with a busted nose, so he’ll be back this weekend, but Barry Donnelly, who also had to leave the fray, will be out for the foreseeable future with an ACL injury.

Jim commented: “I think Raymond [Galligan] will be very keen to build on the Mayo performance, to show that it wasn’t a flash in the pan.

“There’s a lot of positives – Paddy Lynch is back on the field, he’s a quality player and has been a huge loss. To do so well in the league without him was fantastic I thought. Oisin Brady has been injured, he was probably our best forward in the league and he came on against Mayo as well. Whether they start or come in, it’s a big boost for Cavan having them available.

“It’s just a pity about Barry, he came into the senior set-up on the back of his performances with Arva and had been doing really well, so it’s really bad luck for himself personally what happened against Mayo.”

Sunday will tell a story about how significant their victory over Mayo really was. The Connacht side were certainly off-colour, and Jim isn’t quite sure at this juncture how to assess Cavan’s win.

“It was a big surprise, most of the country was expecting a Mayo victory and there’s no point in saying otherwise.

“I saw the game and Cavan were brilliant and made Mayo look very ordinary – how much of that is down to Mayo being poor or Cavan being good remains to be seen.

“It was a strange performance from Mayo – the Cavan boys were flying up the field in oceans of space with no-one laying a glove on them. It was strange in that respect but at the same time it gives Cavan something to build on.”

Reilly expects an improved showing from Donegal this Sunday, citing their over-reliance on Michael Murphy and Michael Langan for scores against Tyrone.

“You look at Donegal, Michael Murphy and Michael Langan scored 15 points between them against Tyrone, that’s unbelievable. Oisín Gallen missed a few, Ryan McHugh missed a chance, but usually they’d have a great spread of scorers. They’re still Ulster Champions for a reason and they’ll be coming to Breffni looking two points, so there’s a big challenge ahead of us.”

LASTING MEETING

2024 NFL Cavan 0-12 Donegal 0-13
AN Oisin Gallen-inspired Donegal earned a hard-fought victory by the minimum margin following this dogfight at a blustery Kingspan Breffni.

Jim McGuinness’s side were four up with 10 minutes to go, but had to endure a nervy finale as Cavan came up with three points in succession. The outstanding Gallen nailed a free from a difficult angle only for Cavan to pull back another, but Donegal held on for a hard-earned victory.

The visitors had built up a wind-assisted 0-8 to 0-4 lead at half-time and Cavan made a real fist of it after the break, but ultimately it wasn’t enough.

Donegal: S Patton, E Gallagher, B McCole, D Mac Giolla Bhríde, R McHugh, C McGonagle, S McMenamin, CThompson (0-1), D Ó Baoíll, R O’Donnell, O Doherty, S O’Donnell, P McBrearty (0-4, 3f), O Gallen (0-6, 4f), J Brennan (0-1)
Subs: MCurran for E Gallagher, OCaulfield for S O’Donnell, M Langan for R O’Donnell), JMcKelvey (0-1) for Mac Giolla Bhríde, L McGlynn for J Brennan.

Cavan: G O’Rourke, O Kiernan (Denn), K Brady, JMcLoughlin, J Smith (0-2, 1m), N Carolan, P Faulkner (0-1), R Donohoe, K Clarke, C Brady (0-1), D McVeety (0-1m), G Smith, P Lynch (0-5f), R O’Neill, T Madden
Subs: J Galligan for R Donohoe, Caoimhin O’Reilly (0-2, 1f) for R O’Neill, R Brady for O Kiernan, R Brady for R O’Neill, Caoimhin O’Reilly for T Madden (58), Cormac O’Reilly for J Galligan (66), C Madden for O Kiernan.

LAST FIVE MEETINGS
2024 Cavan 0-12 Donegal 0-13 – NFL
2022 Donegal 2-16 Cavan 0-16 – Ulster SFC
2020 Cavan 1-13 Donegal 0-12 Ulster SFC
2019 Donegal 1-20 Cavan 1-12 McKenna Cup
2017 Cavan 0-11 Donegal 1-16 – NFL

SEASON SO FAR

CAVAN

NFL
Cavan 0-22 Monaghan 2-22
Meath 3-21 Cavan 0-20
Cavan 3-15 Louth 0-18
Westmeath 0-21 Cavan 1-22
Cavan 1-20 Down 1-18
Roscommon 0-20 Cavan 0-22
Cavan 0-19 Cork 0-21

Ulster SFC
Tyrone 1-24 Cavan 0-20

All-Ireland SFC
Mayo 1-14 Cavan 1-17

DONEGAL

NFL
Donegal 0-20 Dublin 0-16
Kerry 1-18 Donegal 0-23
Donegal 0-21 Armagh 1-10
Galway 0-21 Donegal 0-14
Donegal 1-22 Derry 1-19
Donegal 0-19 Tyrone 0-25
Mayo 1-18 Donegal 1-16

ULSTER SFC
Donegal 1-25 Derry 1-15
Donegal 0-23 Monaghan 0-21
Donegal 1-19 Down 0-16
Donegal 2-23 Armagh 0-28

ALL-IRELAND SFC
Donegal 0-20 Tyrone 2-17

TOP SCORERS

Cavan
Gearóid McKiernan 1-31 (12f, 4 tpf, 3 tp)
Dara McVeety 0-28 (7 tp, 1 tpf, 1 f)
Sean McEvoy 0-15 (4f, 1 tpf)

Donegal
Dáire Ó Baoill 1-29 (9 tp)
Patrick McBrearty 1-29 (8f, 2 tpf, 1 tp)
Michael Murphy 0-27 (4 tpf, 6f, 2 45)