Cavan through to the first ever Tier 2 All Ireland minor final

All Ireland Tier 2 Minor Football Championship Semi-Final

Damien Donohoe

There are very few events of note that happen once in a decade. The Olympic Games, for example, and the World Cups in many sports are held on four-year cycles. Once every 20 or so years, there’s a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, where the two planets get very close to each other in the sky.

On Saturday afternoon, the stars aligned in a different way as a rare and special occasion for Cavan fans occurred: the county minors got the better of a Tyrone team in championship action. It was the first time since Cavan’s 2014 win in the U21 Ulster championship quarter-final that any Cavan team had beaten Tyrone in the heat of championship. It’s a sorry record, but this win was thoroughly deserved.

Tyrone started well and hit the net on the 13th minute, with the boys in blue seemingly in trouble. However the goal triggered a gutsy response from Cavan who dominated the remainder of the half, landing six of the seven scores to go in level at the break.

Seanie Smith’s side created 12 scoring chances in the first half compared to Tyrone’s nine but Tyrone took the only goal opportunity to leave matters even.

Andrew Hill was also denied a goal for Cavan after a super block by Michael McNamee midway through the first half.

A run of five Cavan points between the 17th and 24th minutes in the second half turned a single point deficit into a four-point lead which they used as a cushion to see out the win. The Cavan bench played a vital role with Ultan O’Reilly and Charlie Fallon each landing two points, while Joshua Shehu pinned the Tyrone full-back line in close to their goals.

Eoin Long opened the scoring for Tyrone with a point off his left foot after four minutes but Finn Crowe responded within a minute at the other end after good work by Shane McCabe, Jamie Clarke and Ryan Nwaneri.

Peter Coltan was left in too much space before he restored the Tyrone lead with a point and Long’s second on the eighth minute doubled the Red Hands’ lead.

A driving solo run by Ryan Nwaneri set up Nathan Quigley for the first of his seven points, but Sean Corry drove forward from wing-back to slot the ball over the bar, restoring Tyrone’s two-point advantage.

With 11 minutes on the clock, a brilliant short kick pass by Conor Doyle played Andrew Hill in on goal but his shot was smothered by Michael McNamee, resulting in a 45 which Cavan missed.

Tyrone reacted by winning the ball and taking a shot which dropped short inside the 13-metre line. Eoin Long out-fielded the Cavan defence before jinking left and then right to make enough room to smash the ball to the back of the Cavan net.

Undaunted, Cavan upped the tempo and made sure they got the next score with Odhran Madden booting over from 25 metres. After a couple of missed chances, Cavan held strong and Andrew Hill fisted over a point to leave just three between the sides with 10 minutes remaining in the half.

A foul on midfielder Jamie Clarke resulted in Nathan Quigley tapping over the free, and when Quigley salvaged a point after Nwaneri’s shot for goal was saved, the momentum had thoroughly swung Cavan’s way.

A Darragh Devlin attacking mark gave Tyrone a brief respite but Cavan finished the half the strongly with a foul on Nwaneri allowing Madden to slot over the free. The final score of the half came seconds before injury-time as Finn Crowe won a difficult ball and, while falling, he managed to get his handpass to Fiachra Brady, who calmly put the ball over the bar from 35 metres.

With the sides level, the start of the second half was a slow-burner. Tyrone corner-forward Peter McGoldrick edged his side back into the lead after six minutes and it could have got worse seven minutes later had Cian McConnell not saved Sean Corry’s goal effort.

Cavan management ran in the bench to impact the game and when Joshua Shehu was fouled after his introduction, Quigley did the dutiful with the free.

Peter McGoldrick added a second point for Tyrone as the final quarter began but that just rallied Cavan to up their game.

Subs Shehu and Ultan O’Reilly combined for the latter to level the game with a snap-shot with 13 minutes remaining. When Tyrone ‘keeper Ronan Donnelly was turned over by Cavan, O’Reilly again broke into the D to give Cavan the lead for the first time.

With eight minutes to play, Cavan centre-back Oisin Maguire broke through on goal but when his shot went wide, the referee awarded Cavan the free for an earlier foul. Quigley made no mistake with the kick and added another a minute later to see Cavan lead by three.

Cavan had really targeted the Tyrone kick-out in the game and it paid off again on the 24th minute of the half with Quigley’s seventh point. Tyrone, now trailing by four, went in search of a goal but a diving block by Fiachra Brady meant they had to settle for a Lorcan Murray point.

Cavan, now ahead by three points, held possession, sometimes dangerously, for a couple of minutes before working the ball to sub Charlie Fallon who curled over a beautiful point from the left wing.

Again, Tyrone went in search of a goal but Sean Corry’s flick dropped just over the crossbar in the first of three injury-time minutes.

Cavan needed to win the next kick-out and Jamie Clarke was the man to flick the ball in Cavan’s favour with Charlie Fallon stepping a metre inside the 45 to receive the kick for an attacking mark. The Killygarry man made the 44-metre kick look easy as he raised his second white flag.

Lorcan McMurray, recognising the lack of space in front of the Cavan goal, curled over a point from the wing on his left foot to leave a goal between the sides.

With injury time almost elapsed, Cian McConnell sent the restart Jamie Clarke’s way and the Castlerahan picked the ball out of the sky forcing the final whistle and sealing an impressive win for Cavan, who have made great progress as the season has gone on.

Notably, Derry and Armagh advanced to the All-Ireland semi-finals in the Tier 1 competition which suggests Ulster was particularly strong this year.

Tier 2 is open to all sides outside of the eight who made a provincial final and the small number who didn’t make it past the first round in their respective provinces.

Cavan: Cian McConnell, Aaron Dowd, Conor Doyle, Senan Macken; Fiachra Brady (0-1), Oisin Maguire, Andrew Hill (0-1); Jamie Clarke, Thomas Gilsenan; Shane McCabe, Ryan Nwaneri, Odhran Madden(0-2,1f); Nathan Quigley (0-7, 4f), Finn Crowe (0-1), Seamus O’Reilly

Subs: Joshua Shehu, Ultan O’Reilly (0-2), Tadgh Sheils, Charlie Fallon (0-2,1m), Faolán Graham

Tyrone: Ronan Donnelly, David McKeown, Padraig Goodman, Michael McNamee, Sean Corry(0-3), Aodhán Quinn, Thomas Meehan; Enda Donaghy, James Mulgrew; Darren McAnespie, Peter Colton(0-1), Eoin Mansell; Peter McGoldrick (0-2), Darragh Devlin(0-1m), Eoin Long(1-2)

Subs: Liam McGeary, Shea McDermott, Jamie Concannon, Lorcan McMurray(0-1), Sean Óg Teague