By Niall Gartland

THE Cavan hurlers are relishing the opportunity to have a crack at Mayo this Sunday, and why not, says their justifiably optimistic manager Ollie Bellew.

The Breffni Boys are in their first ever season operating in Division 3A and so far they’ve done themselves proud, losing narrowly on their first day out in a mini-classic against Sligo before claiming a deserved win over Louth just over a week ago.

It was only three years ago that Mayo claimed the Nickey Rackard title, but they arguably aren’t the force they were, so Bellew believes that this game is by no means a damage limitation exercise.

“Mayo’s are everyone’s favourites to go straight into the league final and rightly so as they’re coming from that experience of playing in a higher tier.

“A few years ago it would’ve been unimaginable for Cavan to go travelling down to play Mayo but we’re really relishing it.

“Nobody really expects anything of us but we expect plenty of ourselves. It’s a free hit and there’s no pressure except what we put on ourselves, but we’re going to try to get something out of the game.

“We’ve learnt a lot from our opening two matches and we’re going to try to put what we’ve learnt into practice and we’ll see how we get on, it’s all about marching forwards for us.”

Cavan picked up their first win at the second time of asking with a deserved win over the Wee County. It’s no surprise then that Bellew is delighted with how they’ve responded to the challenge of playing Division 3A hurling.

“I remember the night we won the National League last year, thinking what have we got ourselves in for. But you know something, the confidence in the squad is unbelievable.

“The lads are where they want to be, and anything other than staying in the league would be devastating for everybody because we’re finally playing against the teams we want to be playing against.”

“The rise in standard has definitely helped lift our own game so it’s massive for us that we make sure we don’t drop back down to 2B.”