Clarke: Cavan will learn from this

Paul Fitzpatrick

While defeat was ultimately Cavan's lot against the Dubs, it's all part of a learning curve, according to Killian Clarke.

The Shercock man was captaining the team for the first time and was keen to accentuate the positives.

'Dublin's ball retention was excellent, we were chasing the ball for a lot of the game and probably in the first half we stuck with them, as in matched them – we were getting hits on when they were bringing the ball into the tackle and we were getting the odd turnover,' he said.

 

'But probably the work-rate just dropped off there in the second half a wee bit. We probably should have set up better defensively, we kind of went chasing the game, pushing up for the kick-outs, and it left a gap in behind for the Dublin players to run into.

'Something I noticed, the Dublin players were playing very wide and it stretched our defence massively. Every time they were attacking there was someone sitting up 20 yards ahead of the ball on the sideline which is a hard ball to defend.

'But we'll learn from today and we'll push on.'