Johnston: Cavan players stood behind Carr

CAVAN forward Seanie Johnston has criticised the attempt by board delegates in the county last summer to oust senior football boss Tommy Carr and believes the support that existed for Carr amongst the county senior squad was a key reason for him surviving in the job.

Carr’s position came under threat following Cavan’s All-Ireland qualifier defeat against Wicklow last July but Johnston feels the right decision was made in retaining his services for the 2010 season.

“I made my feelings known. I felt it was completely wrong and probably one of the main reasons that Tommy Carr stayed in the job was because he had the support of the majority of the players there. Some of us players were very vocal in what we thought. I think that has carried onto this year where there is a bit more of a team spirit.

“It is important that players stick together and a lot of players came together and said that what was happening was wrong.

“How can we expect one man to change the fortunes of a county in five months that has been going so badly for eight or nine years? He has got another chance this year and time will only tell whether we have an improvement.

“But he deserved another chance to try and get things right.”

Carr begins his assault on the 2010 Ulster senior championship when Cavan face Fermanagh in a quarter-final tie on June 12 but may have to plan without his star forward Johnston for that game. Johnston broke his elbow playing for DCU in the Sigerson Cup in early February and subsequently missed the Breffni County’s entire NFL Division 3 campaign. But despite making a substitute appearance for his club Cavan Gaels last weekend, Johnston still rates his chances as ‘only 50/50’ of making the Fermanagh game.

“I would say I’m only 50/50 now. Tommy Carr might say 100% but personally I would say that it might even be less than 50/50. I only played for the club for the first time last weekend and that was only for five minutes. I went up to see the game between Derry and Armagh and you could just see the different level from watching club games, to watching games as intense as that.

“It is a different level you have to get into the intensity and everything you associate with inter-county football. It will be difficult to do that in four weeks. When you have not played inter-county football for eight or nine months, it is a very difficult level to get to. I have been doing all the running so my fitness levels are quite good. It is just that I have not got involved in any contact or physical work.”

Johnston revealed that he has consulted with Tyrone attacker Stephen O’Neill who suffered a similar injury in the Dr McKenna Cup final in January and admitted it was disappointing to miss out on DCU’s ultimate Sigerson Cup triumph.

“I was talking to Stevie O’Neill about it. He dislocated his elbow and was only telling me that he was back there last week and he did his two weeks before I did mine. Stevie was saying he is still wary about it. But I had to get an operation whereas he didn’t, and I got plates and wires inserted. I will have to go back and get more surgery at some stage but I’ll try to put that off to championship. I was disappointed to miss the Sigerson because it was my last year but I was happy because there was a bunch of good guys there that deserved the plaudits.”