[citation needed] He played against Armagh in the 1990 Ulster final, won by Donegal.
[1] He started at centre-back in the 1992 All-Ireland Final as Donegal defeated Dublin by a scoreline of 0–18 to 0–14.
[3] In 1992, Hogan Stand was able to indicate that: "Even objective observers of the game in Donegal recognised that the Shovlin, Gavigan and Reid combination probably represented the best line of defence in the country.
The Dublin trio of Curran, Carr and Heery were the only other combination which vied for that tag, it was suggested".
[5] In May 2012, the Irish Independent named him in its selection of Donegal's "greatest team" spanning the previous 50 years.