Terry Hyland admitted that Cavan were too defensive in the first half of their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final defeat to Kerry.

The underdogs packed their defence, but in doing so, invited Kerry onto them with the result that the game was effectively by half-time when they trailed by 0-2 to 0-11.

"We played with two sweepers," the Breffni County boss reflected.

"We had a defensive mindset because we felt possibly the fact that we were inexperienced and not used to playing in Croke Park and very young, that if we kept it tight earlier on...

"There was a strong breeze out there, maybe in the first-half as well, so from that point of view we probably didn't do the right thing. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up. Sometimes you have to be brave and go out and push for the game."

Hyland felt a combination of nerves and too much respect being shown to Kerry were at the root of Cavan's first half problems.

"Maybe we gave them a bit too much respect in the first half and stood off a bit. We had talked about our game plan but we were probably a little nervous moving forward with pace in the first half."

Looking at the season as a whole, he added: "We have learned that we have ability and that we can compete. We also learned that the pace of the game in Division One and Division Two is a different thing. We need to get up out of Division Three and get playing at a higher level so our lads get more used to the pace." Tweet

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