Cavan 3-14
Down 1-8

by Shane Corrigan
at Kingspan Breffni Park

Cavan dethroned champions Down in an emphatic fashion last night at Kingspan Breffni Park to book their place into the last four of this year's Cadbury's Ulster Under 21 Football Championship.

The hosts totally blitzed their opponents in the opening quarter to help themselves towards a commanding 2-7 to 0-2 lead at half-time and registered the first five scores of the second-half to make sure their would be no way back for the Mourne County, who were fancied coming into this clash.

Cavan couldn't have asked for a better start to this game when full-forward Declan McKiernan pounced on Conor McClarey's effort which came off the crossbar and drove the ball to the net inside the opening three minutes. Points from Niall McDermott (2), Niall Smith and Barry Reilly quickly followed as the fired-up Breffni men raced clear.

At the back, the winners had been completely sound to this point, bar Paul McPolin's opener after 30 seconds for the visitors, and combined with a brave save from goalkeeper Martin Smith off Eamon Toner they helped lay the foundations for victory.

Five minutes from the break they struck for a second killer blow when Daniel Graham rode the challenges of the Down defence through the centre and found Cavan Gaels club mate McClarey, who audaciously flicked the ball past Kieran Gordon in goal to help his team take in an 11-point advantage at the interval after a first-half where everything just simply went right for Terry Hyland's charges.

Down introduced Ben O'Reilly and Chris Duggan to the fray at the restart to try and revive themselves, but from the throw-in Cavan picked up where they left off with Gearoid McKiernan bagging an early brace of points which were backed up by Smith and McKiernan to all but book the Blues' place in the semi-final.

Three minutes later the excellent David Givney picked himself off the ground to lash over a gem of a score which shaved in off the right post and had the home support on their feet, before Down finally began to find their range towards the latter stages through Toner, McPolin (3) and a sweet point from the lively Duggan.

Cavan weren't done yet though, as they banged in one more goal when Givney broke possession to substitute Michael O'Reilly, which was cancelled-out in the next attack when Duggan finished off Down's best move of the game into the corner of Smith's net.

After a much needed rousing win for the county, Cavan are sure to go into their semi-final date with neighbours Monaghan next Wednesday night with both caution and confidence, with a provincial final place at stake.

Cavan - M Smith; P Carroll, R Dunne, D Tighe; D Graham (0-1), J McEnroe, T O'Reilly; G McKiernan (0-2), D Givney (0-2); N Smith (0-2), N McDermott (0-3, 2f), B Reilly (0-1); B Fitzpatrick, D McKiernan (1-3, 1f), C McClarey (1-0). Subs: B Murray for J McEnroe, C Smith for N Smith, S Tierney for D McKiernan, M O'Reilly (1-0) for B Reilly.

Down - K Gordon; R McGovern, D Turley, O Costello; C Poland, M Higgins, D O'Hagan (0-1); A McArdle, R Digney; P Devlin (0-1, 1f), C Harrison, B Kane; J Connolly, E Toner (0-1), P McPolin. Subs: B O'Reilly for C Harrison, C Duggan (1-1) for A McArdle, G McAnulty for B Kane, A McConville for J Connolly.

Ref: F Cleary (Fermanagh) Tweet

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