Ballyhaise boss hoping to have learned lessons ahead of rematch

By Michael McMullan

BALLYHAISE manager Gerard O’Kane is hoping his side can learn from defeat ahead of this weekend’s Cavan Championship rematch with Kingscourt.

Just 16 days before the sides lock horns in Sunday’s quarter-final, Kingscourt were nine-point winners when they met in the group stages.

“If you ask if you asked 10 people outside of Cavan to name four teams in Cavan a lot of them probably name Kingscourt as one of them,” said O’Kane of going into face the 11-time champions.

“They have that wee bit of championship tradition behind them. We’re probably looking at it as a chance for us to see if we learned anything from a few three weeks ago. When it gets to the knockout stages, it’s just all on the day.”

Former Derry player O’Kane is his first year as Ballyhaise manager, a club he came across when they knocked his native Glenullin out of the Ulster Intermediate race two years ago.

They were winners of Division Two, which gave them both silverware and two more weeks of game action ahead of the championship. Scouring the province for challenge games to fill a five-week void is never easy.

After a week off, it was back to work with their county players back in the fold since the latter stages of the league.

Gary O’Rourke slotted back between the posts with Evan Crowe coming off the back of a busy window of Sigerson, Cavan u-20 and senior.

Michael Brady was part of Raymond Galligan’s extended panel but got club league games if he didn’t make the Cavan matchday panel.

O’Kane hasn’t been able to call on David Brady, who went travelling to the Cayman Island after last season.

“Effectively, I haven’t missed him since he wasn’t here at the start but obviously the club have missed him,” O’Kane said.

“He was home for three weeks in the summer for a holiday and trained every night.

“I was chatting to him at the league final and he said it was his first time watching Ballyhaise as a supporter since he was 15, it was difficult.”

After a comfortable win over Laragh in their first game, Ballyhaise were on the wrong end of a 3-13 to 1-10 scoreline against Kingscourt.

After edging Arva by a point, O’Kane’s side lost last weekend to Mullahoran.

“I was just a bad night for us,” he said of their defeat to Kingscourt, losing three players to injury.

“It was one of those nights when whatever could go wrong, did go wrong. Mullahoran beat us by three and it was a good game,” he added of last weekend’s game

“Both teams were through but there was definitely no holding back. Right up to the 61st minute, you weren’t sure what way it was going to swing.

“We just never got ahead of them. They got ahead of us a couple of times and we’d draw back level.

“From the word go, it was a real ding-dong battle. It’s the kind of game we’re so glad we’ve had with the quarter-final on Sunday.”

“Kingscourt have been fairly impressive, they’re unbeaten in the championship,” he added of their weekend opponents.

“They’ve got a fair bit of momentum behind them and probably a bit of confidence.

“I don’t know whether it gives them a psychological edge playing a team they beat in the last three weeks or as a case of having to do it twice being harder.”

With a semi-final berth up for grabs and the heat rising, Sunday will tell the tale.