Woeful Cavan slip to new low

Cavan footballers slipped to one of the heaviest defeats in their history last Saturday at a rain-sodden Páirc Uí Chaoímh when Cork, 1/16 favourites, extinguished their championship hopes by a crushing 18 points in this round two qualifier match. While the hosts were greatly helped by referee Syl Doyle - whose decision to dismiss Gareth Smith would surely have been the worst of the weekend were it not for the travesty in Croke Park the following afternoon - they were always in control and, in truth, never really moved out of second gear. Eleven of the Rebels' first 16 points came from dead balls, a startling statistic to which Tommy Carr alluded in his post-match interview, but the root cause of Cavan's problems wasn't the officiating; rather, the visitors' poor decision-making, ball-handling - which was dire - and lack of spark up front were what did for them. Cork set the tone when they opened the scoring just 21 seconds in when Ciaran Sheehan slotted over a point before a Cavan glove had even been laid on the football and they slowly but surely racked up the points from there on, nine in total before Cavan eventually opened the scoring through sub Cian Mackey in the 35th minute. Cork's performance was almost surgical. They methodically cut Cavan open, did the simple things - fist passing, off-the-ball running in support - perfectly well throughout. Cavan's game plan was simple: spoil the midfield, try to hoover up breaks and, presumably, hit Johnston early and often. The first part of the plan was about all that worked. Cavan broke plenty of ball around the middle, where Nicholas Walsh worked hard, but even when they did win the breaks, which was no easy task against such a physically imposing and aggressive outfit, their passing and handling were awful. Johnston, who was well wrapped up by Michael Shields, missed a relatively straightforward 30-metre free in the fifth minute which followed an equally uncharacteristic miss earlier on but Cavan were coping well at this stage. An extremely harsh free against Michael Brides handed Paddy Kelly a simple chance to make it 2-0 on the 10-minute mark and from then, the Rebels began to take over. Points from Colm O'Neill and Daniel Goulding doubled the advantage before Cavan's best chance of the match was spurned, Johnston squaring to Michael Brennan, who spilled the ball with the goal at his mercy. It was that type of day. Try as they might, basic errors ruined any chance Cavan had of making the contest competitive. Tommy Carr resorted to the tried and trusted tactic of removing a corner-forward at the earliest opportunity when your team is trailing. He withdrew debutant Philip Brady after 20 minutes, and hauled full-forward Brennan off shortly after, but the situation didn't improve. In fact, it disintegrated further. Cork's awesome power saw them consistently break tackles, creating space and bombarding the Cavan full-back line, who battled gamely although hopelessly exposed and out-muscled. They coughed up a further four points, 0-3 from frees, as Cork made it 9-0 before Mackey clipped over with the final play of the half to ensure Cavan retained some modicum of pride at the break. The second half followed the same pattern. Like all losing teams, Cavan desperately needed a couple of early scores on the restart but the Rebels had other ideas. Two handy frees followed to make it 11-1, during which time Cavan didn't get a single shot at the Cork posts. Gareth Smith, who gave it his all on the 40, mistimed his dive for a block in the 41st minute and took the force of the Cork player's follow-though; to add insult to injury, ref Doyle somehow perceived this to be a foul and gave the Dubliner his marching orders. Down by a dozen on the scoreboard, down a man and down on ideas, this match couldn't end soon enough for the small Cavan crowd among the paltry 3,172 in Páirc Uí Chaoímh and, you suspect, the Cavan players themselves. Two more Cork frees opened a 14-point gap and although Johnston replied with a free of his own, it was meaningless by this stage. Pearse O'Neill powered through the Cavan defence to bury a goal in the 52nd minute to make it 1-15 to 0-2 and while Cavan kicked the next two scores (both from Ronan Flanagan, who was then bizarrely replaced by defender Thomas Corr), Cork picked up another soft free and two good scores from play by Fintan Goold and Kelly completed the rout. Scorers: Cork: D Goulding 0-8f (0-8f), C O'Neill 0-4 (0-1f), P Kelly 0-3 (0-2f), P O'Neill 1-0, C Sheehan 0-2, F Goold, D Kavanagh 0-1 each. Cavan: R Flanagan 0-2 (0-1f), S Johnston (0-1f), C Mackey 0-1 each. CORK: A Quirke; R Carey, M Shields, J O'Sullivan; G Canty, J Miskella, P Kissane; A Walsh, A O'Connor; P Kelly, P O'Neill, F Goold; D Goulding, C Sheehan, C O'Neill. Subs: N O'Leary for O'Sullivan (h-t), N Murphy for Walsh (40), D Kavanagh for O'Connor (41), E Cotter for Shields (54) J Hayes for Goulding (64). CAVAN: F Reilly; M Brides, D Sheridan, M Hannon; M Cahill, J McCutcheon, A Clarke; C Galligan, N Walsh; E McGuigan, G Smith, R Flanagan; Philip Brady, S Johnston, M Brennan. Subs: M McKeever for Brady (19), C Mackey for Brennan (32), Paul Brady for Galligan (39), D O'Dowd for Brides (46), T Corr for Flanagan (63). Ref:S Doyle (Wexford).