This Saturday sees a novel pairing in the All Ireland Football Qualifiers as Carlow travel to take on Cavan at Kingpsan Breffni Park.
Bolstered by their win against Wicklow last time out, Turlough O’Briens charges will travel in confidence knowing that all the pressure is on the hosts having build up a solid squad in recent years.
Cavan face the unenviable task of having to put a performance together just 6 days after losing their Ulster Semi Final replay to Tyrone after a 5-18 to 2-17 defeat.
It will be interesting to see how they respond to that defeat, because we have seen it before where a team just cannot cope with the fatigue and baggage both mentally and physically after a 6 day turnaround.
One area where Carlow can more than hold their own is at midfield where Sean Gannon and Brendan Murphy have gelled into an awesome partnership.
Murphy scored 1-4 from play the last time, with Gannon covering every blade of grass and if these guys get on top then Carlow can be competitive.
The issue for Carlow is the lack of real scoring forwards and this been the case for many years now, although winning against Wicklow without Paul Broderick was impressive.
Cavan to their credit have a serious attacking threat and scoring 2-17 against Tyrone is no joke. This is a worrying factor for Carlow and they will need to keep close tabs on Cian Mackey, Eugene Keating and Seanie Johnston who have been named in the full forward line.
It’s hard to see anything other than a Cavan win here, but the margin could be a little closer than many people expect.
We Will have full live commentary of the game with thanks to Fine Framers, experts in memorabilia and jersey framing and proud of it, visit fineframers.com
