Withnell and Carr included in Down team to face Cavan

DOWN manager Pete McGrath hasn't been able to resist the temptation to include Ross Carr, who has recovered from injury, and Peter Whitnell, who is back in the fold, in the team to meet Cavan in the Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final at Clones on Sunday.

The influential duo made effective contributions when introduced late on in Down's quarter-final win over Monaghan last Sunday week - and team boss McGrath has placed his faith in them by naming Carr at right-half forward and Whitnell at full-forward in the side that meets last year's provincial finalists Cavan.

Carryduff clubman Carr replaces Patrick Sloan, while Whitnell, who didn't play for Down during the National League and, instead, played soccer with Dundalk, comes in for Gerard Deegan.

Carr only played for 10 minutes against Monaghan, with Whitnell on the field for an extra eight minutes. However, their contributions enabled Down to pull clear and, obviously, convinced McGrath that they were ready for championship fare again.

It will be Whitnell's first time to start a championship match since the 1994 campaign, when Down beat Dublin in the All-Ireland final to lift the Sam Maguire trophy for the second time in the '9Os.

Meanwhile, of the 10 sides left in the hunt for the Sam Maguire, Cavan - at 33 to 1 - may be the rank outsiders. But there is a definite spring in their steps these days and it's not just from basking in the afterglow of the county's recent Ulster Under-21 championship success.

As they prepare for the game against Down, selector Michael Reilly commented: "There is one area we certainly won't fall down in, and that is fitness. We have had something like 104 or 105 sessions since September."

With Olympic hopeful Catherina McKiernan's coach Joe Doonan assuming responsibility for the Cavan team's fitness programme and former Donegal star forward Martin McHugh in the managerial seat, hopes are high within the county that last year's provincial finalists can go a step further.

The Cavan team will be finalised tonight and, although the likes of Finbar Crowe, Anthony Forde and Adrian Lambe are providing healthy competition in the battle for places in the starting line-up, there is unlikely to be major surgery from the side which accounted for Antrim in the quarter-final.

"We have no injuries and the mood is good," said Reilly. "This is a big, big game for us - but we are aware that a considerable improvement will be required from the Antrim match if we are to beat Down on Sunday. A similar display just wouldn't be good enough.

"It will all come down to just 70 minutes of football, but hopefully we can learn a lesson or two from last year's final. The lads are that little bit more experienced now," he said.

In the battle for supremacy in Leinster, Laois manager Colm Browne has decided to take an extra few days to ponder over who to play in the right-corner back position vacated by the injured Adrian Phelan for their provincial Senior Football Championship semi-final encounter with Meath at Croke Park on Sunday.

Any one of three players - Cyril Duggan, Jeremy Kavanagh or Wayne Scully - could be asked to fill the defensive role, which will be the only change from the team that accounted for Kildare in last month's quarter-final. Phelan misses Sunday's showdown after breaking his ankle in training last Monday week and he is expected to have his foot encased in plaster for another month.

The three players in contention to fill the vacancy have varying degrees of experience. Duggan actually filled the full-back position for Laois throughout the National League campaign, but missed the Kildare match because he had opted to concentrate on hurling. Kavanagh played a number of matches in the League, while Scully was a member of the successful Under-21 team that won the provincial crown two years ago. However, he normally operates at wing-back.

A decision on who lines out is not expected until Friday night.

There is also one positional change in Sunday's team, with Hugh Emerson, filly recovered from a ham string injury, moving out to centre-half forward in a direct swap with Damien Delaney.

Meath manager Sean Boylan, meanwhile, has adopted the old adage - `if it ain't broken, don't fix it' - for the provincial semifinal clash with Laois by naming an unchanged team from the one that convincingly accounted for Carlow.

It means team captain Tommy Dowd continues to lead the side from centre-half forward, with Brendan Reilly remaining at full-forward. All-Star defender Graham Geraghty also continues to operate in attack, at left-half forward, a position he filled in Leinster's successful Railway Cup campaign earlier this season.

The winners of the Laois-Meath semi-final will meet defending champions Dublin in the Leinster final on July 28th, a match which the Leinster Council has offered for live transmission by RTE.