'They gave it absolutely everything' - Galligan

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Cavan senior football manager Raymond Galligan was a happy man following his side’s hard-fought victory over Louth, a first win of the season and a timely boost.

Speaking after the game, Galligan expressed his delight at the response of the players after a couple of losses.

“It definitely was (a good performance). It was a tough battle. And look, the lads, all you want is them to give it absolutely everything. And to a man, even the guys coming off the bench, they really, really performed and gave everything.

“So look, that's all you can ask for,” Galligan said.

Cavan, who had been disappointing in the opening two games, didn't lead until the 64th minute but were always close and came up with a stunning finale to claim the points.

“It was great to crowd get behind us there in the last 10 minutes. We didn't give them many opportunities to cheer over the last couple of weeks and months. So hopefully it was a real ‘together’ kind of result, that's all you can ask for.”

Reflecting on their previous performance in Navan, Galligan recognised the areas where they needed to improve and was delighted with how the squad responded.

“Look, we knew we probably just didn't show our best performance the last day against Meath, and we've seen now Meath are a good team, lads just probably weren't hitting their top form in certain areas so we did make changes.

“We brought a little bit more energy out around the middle.

“I thought Evan Crowe was immense, he just cramped up there in second half. I thought he was immense in the role that we gave him. And I thought Dara (McVeety) up front, you know, in and out between full-forward and centre-forward, himself and Gearoid (McKiernan) worked well. So definitely, to a man, I thought they all played well. Look, it's only two points, but it's a good start.”

Galligan also acknowledged the challenging playing conditions but praised the team's perseverance.

“The underfoot conditions today were very, very difficult for lads.

“To get a result and get up and running, you're going to need a bit of luck. And you know that shot (McKiernan’s goal) going into the net, on another day it might go over the bar. But look, I think, with the work that's gone on in the background with this group of men, they've tried and worked so hard over the last eight, 10, 12 weeks, no different than other teams, but sometimes just make your own luck. And I think those boys certainly deserved that today. And we will take the misfortunes, I suppose, on the other side when they come.”

The loss to Monaghan hurt and the Meath defeat hurt even more but Galligan and his players were determined to bounce back.

“There would have been a lot of reflecting done over the first 24, 48 hours after the Meath game, of course, we'd all have to take a good look at ourselves because losing in the manner we did against our local rivals leads to a real sting. But I think we put the head down, we trained really, really hard.

“We had good challenge games against Sligo and Kildare, and it was just all about trying to find lads a bit of form for a half at a time, and then just working really on our own game because I suppose with the new rules, you could get a little bit carried away looking at too many different areas, and then you're not giving certain areas the right amount of attention.

“So we really knuckled down, working hard, working on our tackle, being disciplined, and then at the same time, our skill set, because that just wasn't good enough to date.

“But today, I thought our transition from defence to attack was really clean a lot of the time.

“Again, it was difficult at times and conditions were tough, but I thought we really showed improvement there and I think when you have good skills, you're going to keep yourself in the game, and you're going to get better opportunities within that.”

Looking ahead to their next match against Westmeath, Galligan emphasised the need to keep improving and stay focused.

“There's no difference. Westmeath are in the same boat. Every game's a big game in Division 2, obviously, because of the jeopardy that is in it with regards to being down the wrong half the table.

“But look, we're going to just knuckle down, look at ourselves, see the areas we can improve on, because there's huge areas to improve on at the end of the day, there was only kick of a ball in it on the home straight so we know we have a lot to work on, and we'll be doing that.

“And obviously, you know, we'll give the due respect to Westmeath, because they've shown over the last couple performances that they are a really, really good team. They were only a kick of a ball away from last night against a really good Cork team. So, yeah, we'll just focus on ourselves over the next seven days.”