By Cian O’Connell

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Killian Brady insists Cavan’s strength in depth is the main reason why a serious Allianz Football League Division Two promotion bid has been launched.

Cavan host Galway at Kingspan Breffni Park on Sunday knowing that a draw will be sufficient to guide them into the promised land of Division One.

“It's a strong squad,” Brady said about the panel Terry Hyland has constructed. “I was lucky enough myself to get back in with a couple of injuries I've picked up. 

“We lost Niall McDermott early on in the year, but we've shown the strength in the squad with the lads that have come in and really proved their point. 

“We saw Jack (Brady) coming on at the weekend, he kicked two vital scores for us. There's no one taking a back seat in the squad, everyone wants to be playing at the weekend.

“Unfortunately everyone can't play. Even the guys that aren't making the 26, they're the lads that are driving the thing on. People don't see that. Everyone is there for the good of Cavan football so it is great to see it now.”

Cavan’s response to two early losses against Tyrone and Derry in the competition has been most impressive including a stirring revival mission when defeating Meath in the third round of fixtures.

“At the start of the year, you look to win all those games,” Brady reflected. “Unfortunately it didn't go our way. We knew we weren't that far off clicking and probably that was the positive thing going into the three weeks. 

“We knew we had stuff to work on and coming out after that three-week break we knew we had addressed some of the issues. 

“We said, 'Look it lads, if the thing goes our way, if we play the way we can play there's not too many teams that are going to be able to stop us'. 

“So there was great confidence in the team and that's probably what a lot of it was. Sometimes maybe you can listen to the media or listen to people too much and maybe we should be down a division or two, but we never believed that. We think we have good enough players to be competing at a higher level.”

Despite trailing by eight points at one stage of that Meath encounter Terry Hyland refused to press the panic button.

“There was definitely no shouting or roaring,” Brady said about how Cavan remained cool under pressure. 

“We probably went in maybe wondering how we got ourselves in that position because we had been so competitive in the first two games, although we had lost them, to find ourselves seven points down at half-time wasn't maybe a position we were familiar with. 

“Terry sat us down, we knew there was only a couple of things we needed to get right. We obviously got that goal early in the second half to set us up. 

“We were only two scores away from getting back in the game. Obviously a couple of lads stepped up. Gearoid (McKiernan) stepped up and Seanie (Johnston) stepped up. We knew if we got back in the game that we could push on to win it, so I think confidence was a lot of it.”

Brady is enthused by the manner in which Cavan have performed throughout the league in 2016. “I think we've been strong defensively in the last few years. Just getting a few more scores on the board has been letting us down. 

“We'd be very confident in our defensive abilities, going man for man we'd be very confident taking on anyone. When you set up strong at the back, you can maybe push on an extra guy and that's helped in terms of getting a few more scores on the board. 

“People probably talk about us changing our style, but what's changed I think is our transition, we've always had pace, we probably are using that pace a lot more now, and getting guys ahead of the ball. 

“You can see lads making a lot of runs now, that's all unselfish play. I think that's the mantra of the group at the minute, we're all fighting for each other at the minute, for Cavan football.”

Currently Cavan’s focus is simply to defeat Galway on Sunday.  “We needed a result or two to go in our favour last year to get promoted. 

“I think Roscommon have proven this year that they made the same jump, they went from Division Three the same as us and have gone up to Division 1 this year and they're flying it up there. 

“We believe we have a good enough squad as well. There's definitely no fear factor within the group. Probably the last few performances have given us even more belief. 

“We won't be playing any of the top eight teams until maybe the Championship so we won't be thinking about next year or Division One. All we're thinking about is next weekend.”