CORK got their All-Ireland campaign off to a winning start away to Wexford, helped by two Amy O’Connor goals.

Rebel manager Matthew Twomey, while acknowledging that at times the game was scrappy, was complimentary of his players.

“It’s never easy to come to Wexford and get a win. I was very happy at half time. Our tackling was excellent. We got 1-5 in the first half from turnovers, which was huge. In the second half, Wexford went defensive and we had to match that and that was difficult, but when you come down here, it was always going to be hard.

“It’s my first time in nine years that we’ve come down here and won, so I’m happy with the win obviously – to get the points on the board. There’s a lot to work on, we know that. We’ll be disappointed with a few things but when we conceded the goal in the second half we came up and got a goal back which is a good sign of a team.

“It got a bit bunched in the second half in and around the middle. We were trying to create space, but it was clustered, and we were under so much pressure on the ball then trying to give a proper pass and some went astray. That’s another think we’ll have to look at.”

The crowded area nullified the threat of Orla Cronin who likes to roam freely around the half-forward line.

“It did, we needed space. But we got through it, it was a good test. As I said, there are a few things now for us to go and work on again.”

Cork did manage to prise open the game again and pull away, with some strong performances, most noteworthy young Emma Murphy, who has been given a lot of game time lately and it’s starting to paid dividends.

I thought Emma was excellent. She got four points but even the one where she got back, I think the player had 20 yards on her and she got back and flicked the ball away from her.

“And the goal that she offloaded to Amy O’Connor, that was a great goal because we worked it up the whole way from defence, five or six passes and we split them open, so we’d be very happy with that.”

Sorcha McCartan also made an appearance if only for a few minutes which was pleasing, it’s the first step back for her.

“We’ve three points on the board and any day you come to Wexford and get that, it’s a good day. We’ve Clare next weekend, they drew with Tipperary.

“So once again they’ve proven they’re a strong team. We’ll welcome them to Cork. The game will probably move to Sunday as the ladies’ footballers have their Munster final on Saturday, so we’ll wait and see.”