First home tie of new season for Breffni hurlers

By Niall Gartland

CAVAN will hope to pick up their first league win at the second time of asking when they host Louth at Kingspan Breffni on Saturday afternoon.

The Breffni County played out a massively entertaining contest in their first Division 3A clash away to Sligo last weekend but ultimately fell short on the day. They trailed by 15 points at the break and would’ve been forgiven for thinking that life in Division 3A isn’t for them, but they came out fighting after the break and a frantic finish saw them lose out by 4-19 to 3-18.

They’ll take confidence from the manner of their second-half performance, especially as they didn’t give up the ghost after the late sending off of wing-forward Thomas Leonard at a time when there were seven points between the teams.

Managed by St Gall’s native Ollie Bellew, Cavan have been making steady strides and they’ll see no reason why they can’t pick up their first league points of the campaign this weekend if they play to their maximum against a Louth side that finished in the bottom half of Division 3A last year.

The Wee County will be in good spirits, however, having claimed an exciting 4-14 to 1-20 victory over Lory Meagher holders Monaghan in their opening league encounter last weekend.

Cavan will look to the likes of Liam O’Brien and Nicholas Kenny, who scored two goals against Sligo, to lead the way on the scoring front and if they can keep it a bit tighter at the back have every chance of taking the spoils.

The Breffni need to keep tabs on score-getters like John Casey, who weighed in with 2-4 against Monaghan, and Darren Geoghegan in particular, while Louth have solid defenders like Andrew Smyth, Thomas McCreesh and Kyle Rafferty as well midfield pairing of George Allen and James Costelloe.

On the back of their win over Monaghan, Louth are arguably favourites but this is certainly no gimme and Cavan are coming in nicely under the radar.