A MERE 72 hours days after winning the Cadbury’s U-21 Ulster Football Championship final, Cavan advanced to the All-Ireland Championship final after a hard-fought five-pint win over Leinster Champions Wexford.
Terry Hyland’s charges swapped celebrations for rehabilitation on Wednesday night and were the first team off the mark in Parnell Park within 60 seconds of throw-in.
Seven minutes later Michael Brady doubled their lead before the Model County rallied with three unanswered scores to eek them into a slender lead. But the deficit could have been more but for two heroic goal-line clearances from Fergal Flanagan.
On 19 minutes Cavan were level when full-forward Niall McDonald opted to go over the bar rather than go for the gaping goal that lay in front of him. By this stage Wexford were dominating midfield as Cavan struggled to win their own kick-outs but unfortunately for the Leinster Champions they were not converting their scores.
The sides traded scores again before the short whistle to leave it level on 0-4 to 0-4 at the interval.
Within four minutes of the restart, Cavan registered the goal that changed the complexion of the game completely when Jack Brady fed Niall McDermott who hammered the ball home. Cavan’s lead was compounded less than a minute later when Niall Smith’s score but four points between them.
Wexford got themselves back on the scoresheet through James Breen before Cavan goalkeeper Alan O’Mara was called into duty making the first of two fine saves. In the 47th minute Breen kicked his fourth score of the evening to close the gap to 0-1 but a series of wides proved costly for Kevin Kehoe’s team as Cavan went on to kick four points with reply before Breen notched his fifth and Wexford’s final score of the evening.
Wexford had their chances but a total of 11 wides to Cavan’s 3 proved a telling statistic in the end.
Cavan will now face a Galway side that shocked a much-fancied Cork side on Saturday night.
They came as underdogs despite showing no mercy to Roscommon in the Connacht final and left with a place firmly secured in the All-Ireland final in two weeks’ time, winning 1-11 0-12.
Galway dug deep when they needed to, brushing aside a Cork side that destroyed a Kerry outfit in the Munster scoring 2-24 in the process.
Barry O’Driscoll was the Cadbury’s hero of the game in the previous outing but the tight marking by Galway captain Colin Forde had to be admired while Athenry’s Tomas Flynn was a powerhouse in the team’s engine room as he lit up midfield.
The latter found the opener in the first minute and the Tribesmen led 0-3 to 0-1 after five minutes. However the Leesiders would outscore their opposition in the second quarter to carve out a 0-7 to 0-6 lead at the interval.
After 46 minutes Cork were looking comfortable in the driving seat after opening up an 0-11 to 0-8 lead but the tide would soon turn and the Munsterchampions could only produce just one point before the full the full time whistle sounded. Eric Monaghan kicked off the Galway revival and a goal from Michael Boyle in the 50th minute proved to be the turning point.
