Cavan finding form at the right time

By Shaun Casey

AFTER a difficult start to the league, with loses to Armagh and Tipperary, Cavan have bounced back with two victories on the trot and will hope to keep that winning form going this weekend against Roscommon.

Cavan saw off Westmeath by one point before the break in the league and followed that up with a win over neighbours Monaghan last weekend by the same margin.

“They’re all big games in Division Two,” said boss Gerry Moane. “We only have three home games and it’s the last home game, so we’ll be looking forward to, hopefully it’ll be in Breffni Park too.

“We had two one-point wins there and the game against Monaghan was a local derby and the scoreline didn’t really reflect the game. We conceded a goal and a point late on which probably put a bit of gloss on the scoreline.

“I thought we were a far better team over the course of the game, but a few mistakes and we conceded a couple of bad goals which is something we need to look at. But at the end of the day, it was about getting the victory and getting the three points which is what it’s all about.”

The concession of goals is a cause for concern however as the Cavan net has been struck ten times in four games.

“Any game you concede goals in, it’s concerning so it’s something we’re looking at and there’s different reasons for that. But it’s all about the collective and collectively we’ve conceded goals when we shouldn’t have.

“It’s always something that you want, to keep the goals to a minimum, especially in big games you need to be keeping the goals out. Yesterday we showed our character in abundance.

“There’s a lot of players missing from last year, possibly four or five of the six defenders, aren’t available for different reasons.

So, it’s a great testament to the newer players, they’ve grown into it as the games have gone on and that’s the benefit of going back to the seven league games, it’s a great benefit to this young squad.”

One player that you can rely on however is star player Aisling Sheridan, who nailed Cavan’s all important three-pointer last weekend and is a huge leader in the squad.

“It’s great to have Aisling back from Australia, she is one of those players where there’s no airs or graces. Aisling gets on with the job in hand and she was exceptional against Monaghan.

“It just summed up her performance, the last kick-out we got she came out to the middle of the field and won the kick-out and won her free and that was testament to her performance.

“We had a great team performance, we showed character when things were going against us. We held our nerve and we did the same against Westmeath in injury time, we were one point down and we worked it back and got a one-point win.”