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Cavan Dump Neighbours Out of Electric Ireland Minor Championship
Monday 29.05.2017
The Electric Ireland Ulster Minor Championship produced another cracker of a game at Kingspan Breffni Park on Sunday evening as Cavan came back from a 0-11 to 1-5 half time deficit to defeat Monaghan 3-14 to 1-15. This was a game that will live long in the memory of the three thousand plus crowd that paid in to watch it.
Monaghan came into the game as clear favourites following their very impressive demolition of Fermanagh in the preliminary round. However they found themselves on the back foot early on as the home side began strongly.
The teams swapped early points and were tied at 0-3 apiece when James Smith rose highest to punch an Oisin Pierson free to the net. Cavan added two further points from Pierson to move five clear midway through the half and put themselves in pole position.
However Monaghan rose to the challenge and led by Dean Connolly , Andrew Woods, Sean Burns and Robert Mc Alister they reached the break three in front following eight unanswered points. They simply blew Cavan away in the closing ten minutes of the first half and the Breffni men reached the break lucky to be only three in arrears.
Cavan looked a different team after the restart as Patrick Lynch, Ruairi Curran, Ryan Coyle, Cormac Timoney and Cian Madden led the fightback. Curran had what appeared a perfectly good goal ruled out in the thirty fifth minute but Cavan put that setback behind them as they hit 1-5 inside the opening ten minutes of the second period to move 2-10 to 0-11 in front. Back came Monaghan with scores from Burns and Conor Doyle before Cavan corner forward Pierson slotted over two fine points.
The pace of the game never let up as both teams went toe to toe in search of scores. Gary O’Rourke in the Cavan goals made three superb stops to keep his team in front but he was powerless to stop Robert Mc Alister finding the net and reducing the gap to two points. That score saw momentum swing in the direction of the Farney lads as the game entered the final quarter.
Cavan were in danger of being over-run but Cian Madden got the all important score when he found the rigging for the Breffni blues as he finished a fine team move to the net to put further day light between his side and Monaghan.
With time running out Monaghan’s Conor Doyle carried the ball seventy yards only to lose control as he was about to shoot with the goal at his mercy. Doyle and Pierson did swap late scores and although there were over seven minutes of added time played Monaghan were unable to close the gap and Cavan made it through to the semi finals where they will meet the winners of next week’s clash between Down and Armagh.
Final score: Cavan 3-14, Monaghan 1-15.