Cavan minors hoping to end 14 year wait in provincial final showdown

By Shaun Casey

IT’S 14 years since Cavan last claimed the Ulster Minor Championship title and Ed O’Hanlon’s side have a chance to end that record when they take on Tyrone at Brewster Park, Enniskillen, this Sunday afternoon.

Cavan overcame Donegal last weekend by five points to reach the decider for the first time since 2017 while their opponents, the Ulster Minor League champions, have sailed through the whole season unbeaten.

The only loss on Cavan’s record so far in the championship was a round two defeat to the Red Hand County back in early May. Tyrone, playing on home soil at O’Neill’s Healy Park Omagh that day, emerged five point winners on the day, 0-19 to 0-13.

O’Hanlon’s men bounced back with a brace of victories over Down and Donegal to reach Sunday’s showdown and the Breffni boss believes both he and his rival manager Gerard Donnelly, will take lots of learnings from that game.

“Both teams will have learnings from that game,” O’Hanlon said ahead of the final. “On the day we would have been really unhappy with our shooting efficiency, we had quite a number of good chances that we butchered on the day.

“While it was a six point defeat for us on the day, I think both ourselves and Tyrone probably know that it was a very close contest throughout so there certainly are things that we’ll be looking to tidy up on from that performance.

“Equally, there’s lots of stuff that I know Gerry and the Tyrone management will be looking to improve on as well. This time we’re now competing in a neutral venue and the circumstances around this game are quite different to that round two encounter for both teams.”

One positive to take from that contest was the fact that Cavan held a clean sheet despite their six point defeat. Tyrone have rattled off four majors in their three championship games but failed to raise a green flag against Cavan.

Peter Garrity and Eoin Long both hit the net in their opening round win over Fermanagh while Garrity and Thomas Meenan were responsible for their three-pointer in last week’s semi-final triumph over Monaghan.

Cavan on the other hand have conceded just one goal throughout the entire campaign and that was the first day out against Derry. The Cavan net hasn’t been breached in their encounters with with Tyrone, Down and Donegal while three goals themselves in four outings.

“We’ve been operating fairly well from that point of view, and we continued that last weekend as we didn’t concede a goal,” O’Hanlon added. “I’m sure Tyrone will try to change that on Sunday, but the truth of the matter is that we’re defensively performing very well as a whole.

“That’s a 15-man effort and I’m sure both teams will be doing everything they can to not concede a goal at the weekend and please God that’s an aspect of our play that we can continue.”