My overwhelming feelings from yesterday are ones of relief and frustration. The game was there for the taking, when were a couple of points ahead, a man up and going into the last 10 minutes of normal time and as usual we found a way to balls it up. It's plainly obvious now that there is a serious issue with this team when it comes to seeing out games that we are leading in and in control of. For whatever reason, we are incapable of knowing what to do in this situation and seeing the game out. Galway at home a few years ago in the league, we were 8 points ahead and threw it away. The Tipperary game from three years ago where we strolling and then blew it and with it promotion to Division 2. Last season against Sligo we did it again. This year against Clare in Newry. Two weeks ago against Down. Now this. And those are just the ones I remember. I don't know how and if this can be solved.
By the end of extra time I was relieved to get another bite at it. Cavan have been operating at a slightly higher level than us and did cause us problems and kept most of our danger men under wraps. We had some big performances from Burns, Hall, Hughes and Forker who was excellent. Donaghy rightly got sent off and I don't know why the team are even bothering with an appeal. It's blatant what he did.
To beat Cavan next week, we have to take our chances, getting more from Clarke and O'Neill. Rian can't be missing easy frees like he did in the first half and has to release the ball quicker than he did in the second half when we had a two man overlap which he blew because he held on too long. Clarke needs to start scoring. He's winning lots of ball and has become a better team player, but he needs to be a scoring threat again. We also have to stop the Cavan runners coming through as that's where they get the majority of their scores from - lots of hand passing patterns, which allows someone to break forward unmarked, creating an overlap to score or win a free. We will also need to have Burns fit as he's become a crucial player for us.
Cavan are there for the taking. I just don't know if we have that killer instinct to take advantage, which is so frustrating, as there's so much about the team which is good.