’Long time coming’, but Cavan have earned it
Both they and Derry, though they wouldn’t admit it, will have spent the last week with their eyes looking beyond London to an All-Ireland quarter-final. For Cavan, it would represent a first step into that series since their 1997 semi-final with Kerry.
Derry have four times seen the last eight since then and as the blue shirts flooded the Celtic Park pitch at Maurice Deegan’s final, final whistle as dusk fell on Saturday evening, you just felt that maybe Derry wanted it and Cavan needed it.
