By Rory Houston - @RTESundayGame
Donegal captain Kevin Cassidy is anticipating a closely fought clash with Cavan in Sunday’s Ulster Football Championship quarter-final match in Kingspan Breffni Park.
Having overcome Antrim in the previous round, Jim McGuinness’ men are favourites to advance to the last four against an inexperienced and experimental Cavan team.
However, Cassidy believes the match will be a lot closer than some would expect. He said: ‘They have a great tradition down there and their Under-21s got to the All-Ireland final.
‘They have a decent squad so it will be a tough ask for us. Our squad has many young players too so it is going to be a tight battle.’
Donegal were criticised for the style of play they deployed against the Saffrons, with many believing it was an overly-defensive approach.
But Cassidy has played down talk of Donegal playing a type of football that is bad for the game.
The Gaoth Dobhair clubman said: ‘It was over the top. We were just happy to get out and have a game of football. They speak about negative football but at the end of the day it is all about results. Nobody cares about the performance as long as you win.
‘In saying that, we weren't happy with the way we performed. There were a lot of things for us to go back and work on but it was all about getting over the first hurdle.
‘Antrim were going to be tough and they had beaten us in Ballybofey before. It was a game we just had to get out of the way more than anything else.’
Nearly four weeks have passed since the first outing for Cassidy and his team-mates and after plenty of talk about their tactics, he is looking forward to seeing Championship action once again
He added: ‘It was an advantage that we had a break. We had a lot of players doing exams, like a lot of teams do I suppose. It is good to have them boys back and finished up and with us.
‘There's been a lot of hard work done in the last couple of weeks. It'll be good to get out on the field and play a match.’
