Cavan footballer Gearoid McKiernan has emphasised the psychological boost the team will get from beating Mayo in Sunday's Allianz League clash.
The Swanlinbar midfield earned Man of the Match for his performance in the 1-14 to 0-15 win which saw them defeat one of the nation's elite teams and give themselves a chance of survival.
"Psychologically, to beat a team like this for us is very important," he told Newstalk Sport's Oisin Langan at full time.
He also feels Cavan are showing signs of learning about life in the rarefied are of Division One.
"You saw some of the lessons today and we're always learning. But at the same time, you can't be using that excuse of learning. You're going to have to step up to the plate sometime."
Cavan’s Dara McVeety and Stephen Coen of Mayo after the game ©INPHO/James Crombie
His team-mate Dara McVeety is glad at the opportunity to salvage their Division One place with games against Kerry and Roscommon to come.
"We're happy. We knew coming down here, we knew the pressure was on. We knew coming down, if we didn't get a win today, we knew we were definitely gone. So at least we gave ourselves a little of hope staying in Division One and I think we kind of proved that today that we have the ability when we perform. It's just [a case of] getting more consistent performances," he said.
"I think last year in Division Two, you get away with not performing for 10-15 minutes of a game. This year if you don't perform for 10-15 minutes, you'll just be beaten out of the gate. So we're learning I suppose that we have to perform for the whole game if you want to be in with a chance of winning."
He added that "it's time for us to step up now and we have a great chance to do it with two games left".
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