O’Reilly: Cavan unruffled by external distractions

Padraic O’Reilly insisted Cavan aren’t interested in drawing Kildare in this morning’s back-door draw more than any other team.

The prospect of Seanie Johnston coming up against the Cavan team he turned his back on is one the rest of the country would love to see, but not the Breffni boys

“It’s just great to be playing football in July,’’ said the captain, after yesterday’s remarkable fight-back against Fermanagh.

“We didn’t want to bow out on the first of July and have another short summer again. We have played too much spring football.

“We want to be playing football in the summer.’’

O’Reilly claimed the fact that the shock Kildare result was announced over the PA system during the game had no bearing on Cavan’s comeback, when they hit 3-3 in 10 minutes to turn the game around.

“Someone said it (the Kildare result) to me afterwards, I didn’t pass any remarks. It had no bearing on it. Everything like that is outside of this group. This is an unbelievable tightly group. Nothing that goes on outside matters, and we don’t care who we get in the draw. It’s just great to get the winning feeling back.’’

O’Reilly felt Gearoid McKiernan’s goal in the 51st minute as the game-changer.

“After the first goal went in there was only going to be one winner. There was still loads of time left and we knew we still had it in our legs.”