Cavan captain Lynch relieved to get over the line

By Shaun Casey

AFTER a nail-biting finish to Saturday’s Ulster Intermediate decider, Cavan didn’t celebrate too much that night when they took the trophy home. However, they more than made up for it on Sunday according to skipper Shauna Lynch.

They were three points up in the dying minutes of the contest, but Monaghan had the final say in normal time and substitute Caoimhe Ward rattled the net to tie things up.

Cavan came good in the end to retain their title, but it was a hard-fought encounter that went right down to the wire.

“Having gone to extra time, we were late getting back to Cavan on Saturday night, and everyone was wrecked by we made up for it on Sunday,” Lynch explained “We got together in Virginia and had a good day which was great.

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“Even though we were up with three minutes to go, it never felt like we were over the line, it was always going to go to the final whistle, and it did.

“Extra time was tough on the bodies and tough right up to the last moments, but it was great just to get over the line.”

Niamh McCorry bagged a brace of goals in extra time, bringing her own individual tally to 2-2 for the day and that finally put them at ease, with Cavan winning out 4-13 to 1-20 in the end.

“We were three up at half time and we were against the wind in the first half. We probably weren’t playing to the best of our ability but going in three up at that point, we were probably happy enough with that,” continued Lynch.

“We were winning for most of the game, but it was only by that two or three point lead, literally up until the last three minutes when they got the goal. It was so tit for tat the whole game; there was no one pulling away really.

“Niamh got both goals in extra time, and they were an unbelievable help to us. In the second five minutes of the first half of extra time, we did push on a good bit, those two goals settled us and we started to play a bit better then.”

All eyes are onto the All-Ireland series straight away. It’s been a brilliant season so far for Cavan, having secured Division One football for next year along with a provincial triumph, but there’s still a long way to go.

“We actually got onto the bus after the game and there was a great buzz. Emmet (Daly) just stopped us for a minute to congratulate us but to say that our focus has turned straight away to the first group stage of the All-Ireland series. We’ll be back into training on Wednesday night and that’ll be our full focus from here on out.”