Boylan delighted to retain Ulster title

Cavan swept Armagh a side with a strong first half display in the NWP Recycling Ulster Junior Championship at Owenbeg on Saturday. Corner forward Roisin O’Keefe was the star of the show with a hat-trick of well taken goals to overcome a young Armagh side finishing 6-11 to 2-04 at the Derry GAA Centre.

Cavan captain Bríd Boylan was proud of her side’s performance on route to retaining the Junior title against a young Armagh side. “It was our goal at the start of the year to retain this title and a lot of work went into preparing for today and I’m just glad everything worked out on the day. We knew the Armagh side was young and would be determined so we were eager to start well and get the ball into our full forward line with the likes of Roisin O’Keefe who took her scores well and we were delighted with the start we had.”

Cavan lead 2-03 to 0-02 after fifteen minutes with the dominance of Boylan and Rosie Crowe evident at the beginning of the game. Bríd believes the direct style of play was crucial to getting an early foothold in the game. “We focused on hitting in direct ball into the forwards and working hard around the middle of the pitch. We are trying to close Armagh down and play to our potential. Rosie and myself in midfield is a new combination and it worked well and we have a good understanding”.

Cavan dual star Boylan from Castletara was also quick to praise the display of Player of the Match Roisin O’Keefe and her class was evident on Saturday. “Roisin is an unbelievable player and she has great positional sense and she knows when to take her scores and also lay the ball off. She brings the rest of the girls on and she’s great to play alongside”.

Cavan now go into the All-Ireland Junior A Championship and face Carlow at home on Sunday but Bríd says the focus will only shift onto that game later this week. “We hadn’t looked past this Junior Final and we’ll now turn our attention to the All-Ireland series and we’ll take that each day as it comes but we are delighted with retaining our title and we’ll enjoy that”.