Division Two

SIX points would normally be enough to spare any team the threat of relegation, but Cavan’s fate hangs in the balance ahead of Sunday’s final round clash against Roscommon.

The Rossies will likely achieve promotion no matter what way things pan out, but Mickey Graham’s Cavan would be unwise to leave anything to chance – and it’s worth noting that they still have a small chance of promotion if they come out on the right end of the result.

First things first, they’ll need to shore up their defence. They conceded a mammoth 1-21 against Kildare at the weekend, but Padraig Faulkner, who lined out in midfield, may have been better off helping out in defence.

At the same time, they’ll take some positives from the defeat. They were outscored 1-10 to 0-3 during a period either side of the half-time break, but they showed great character to fight their way back into it and only ended up losing by four points.

They were also fairly impressive in attack themselves. Conor Smith and Cormac Reilly made their mark on the game, while newcomer Caoimhin McGovern did well when he came off the bench, kicking two points from play.

He’s still only a teeanger and another debutant, Cormac Timoney who actually started and finished the game, also showed well.

Niall Murray’s introduction in injury time was also a major boost as he was out with a long-term injury earlier in the year, while stalwarts like Gearoid McKiernan and Martin Reilly had good games.

And also, they are set to welcome back Killian Clarke, Tomas Galligan, Steven Murray, James Smith and Oisin Pierson this weeend.

Still though, their defence is a major area of concern at the minute. Killian Clarke is back on the scene but didn’t feature against Kildare, while Conor Moynagh is still unavailable.

In terms of the permuations, Cavan can’t really rely on other results going their way. If Laois beat Fermanagh, which is probably the most likely outcome, then they’d need at least a draw against a team which has proven their bogey side for much of the last decade.