A missed free by Rory Gallagher about eight minutes from time was clearly troubling Fermanagh manager Pat King after he had seen his side beaten.

King said: "The close free we missed with eight or nine minutes to go for a four points lead was a tremendous boost to Cavan and a great blow to us. "I had the point counted before the free was taken (Rory Gallagher was the taker). "Four points up at that stage, I think, would have killed off Cavan. Had we not had that opportunity I don't think it would have been as bad. I just cannot get that missed free-kick out of my mind. Our fellows' heads dropped at that point, Cavan came back at us and McCabe had an inspirational point.

"We made enough mistakes to get beaten. The way I saw it Cavan should have been dead and buried after 20 minutes. We hit the post. They (Cavan) played very little in the first half and still they were only a point behind at half-time," said King.

Rory Gallagher said that the crucial missed free was the biggest disappointment of his career.

"Rory was a tremendous kicker before his long lay-off through injury," said King.

Cavan manager Liam Austin said: "There was massive pressure on our team as Ulster champions. I felt that when we relaxed more towards the end and played football we did start to get moves together and the important scores followed. Our young players would have learned a lot today. We would have to improve before the Donegal match. That will be a different ball game but for the moment we are still in there and that's the important thing about championship football."

"Fermanagh had a very potent forward line that is very difficult to mark down and I am relieved we got out of the game with a win. Eventually the spirit of this team saw us through and it's never-to-say-never approach. It's all about work rate. When things were down we set about the task and got the result."

Austin touched on the unsatisfactory first-half performance by his midfielders. "We brought in Fergus Reilly to midfield and he adapted well. It's a big ordeal for young fellows to come into a championship game and I appreciate

that. We had played absolutely nothing in the first half and were still in contention."

Cavan forward Ronan Carolan said: "You'd have to feel sorry for Fermanagh - they are very similar to the way we were a couple of years ago. It's just a matter of making the breakthrough.

"Fair play to them, they had their homework done and made it very very difficult for us. They had us tied up, up front. When the game seemed to be lost we just kept at it and fortunately things went our way."

Cavan captain Bernard Morris said: "We played about seven minutes of football and won it."

Meanwhile, Donegal manager Declan Bonner was clearly impressed by Cavan. "You have to hand it to them. They came back from three points down in the end. They look fit and are going to be hard to beat," said Bonner.