Thomas Galligan believes that Mickey Graham deserves great credit for bringing the respect back to Cavan after the county won their first Ulster title in 23 years last weekend.

Cavan beat Donegal 1-13 to 0-12 in a surprise result as they stopped Declan Bonner’s team from winning three in a row.

The Breffni men were written off in all quarters before the game, yet they pulled off a fantastic result. The win owes much to Graham’s attitude according to Galligan.

“He is obviously a top level manager. He got Mullingaghta to a Leinster fial and they won that Leinster final with a small pick. I think his record proves how good he is. He doesn’t have to talk about how good he is. He just shows how good he is.

“He instills belief in the players that we are good enough to win. Maybe last year perhaps we were a bit cautious or a bit shell shocked in the final. I think this year we went out and actually showed that we are as good as every other team in Ulster. It is nice to get a bit of respect back.

“So the credit goes to Mickey because he deserves it. He is a top level manager.”

Galligan himself represented that belief on the field. He battled throughout and won man of the match.

Thomas went off twice in the game with multiple injuries but kept coming back on for more.

“I didn’t realise I had cut my eye till the doctor told me. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t open my eye till the doctor told me it was bleeding. Once I got stitched up there was no reason why I didn’t go back out. It was the same as anyone else would do.”

Cavan now are mid preparations for an All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin. That they get to do so in lockdown with covid restrictions limiting the amount of people who can come up and clap them on the back, could be a good thing.

“It helps a little bit that pubs aren’t open but we will still celebrate it. I don’t think there was a chance that we would have stayed in the pub the whole week. Things don’t happen like that any more. We celebrated with the people who meant the most to us. We stayed together and stayed as a unit. And celebrated with family. I know that people will say that pubs would make a difference but I don’t think it did.”