Cork made hay between the 30th and 60th minutes, where they outscored their rivals by 1-10 to 0-4 to win this game

CORK secured their second successive victory over a Division 1 outfit in the space of a week to secure qualification for the All-Ireland quarter-final, thanks to an injury time winner by substitute Kevin O’Donovan at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday afternoon.

Just like last week against Mayo there was a period in this game when Roscommon would have felt extremely comfortable and would have been confident of winning this All–Ireland Preliminary quarter-final.

Last week Mayo had led by six only to be undone by an answered 1-6 salvo by the Rebels late on, and in the first half Roscommon would have felt that they had Cork's measure.

After 32 minutes they led by 0-7 to 0-3 and were totally on top. Cork had not scored since the 14th minute, which was their sole score since the sixth minute, and it seemed that every time Cork crossed the Roscommon 45 and took it into contact that they got turned over by the well organised and extremely physical Roscommon defence.

At this juncture it really did look like a game between a seasoned Division 1 side and a Division 2 side trying to find their feet. 

To Cork's credit, they changed this narrative.

Part of the issue early on was that Roscommon were starving Cork of possession, choosing to hold onto the ball for as long as possible in order to work the perfect scoring opportunity. 

This has the added effect of ensuring that when Cork did get their hands on the ball they seemed overly anxious, with them often trying to open their Connacht rivals up too quickly and turning the ball over cheaply when they would have been better served to be more patient.

Steven Sherlock stopped the rot when he slotted a 33rd minute free, after Mattie Taylor had been fouled, and two superb points from play, one after another, in the 36th minute from Tommy Walsh and Taylor meant that Cork somehow only trailed by one as they headed in for the much needed half time team talk. 

They hadn't performed, yet they were right in it. That in itself was a result from a Cork perspective.

Cork ended with nine different scorers on the day and it is worth noting that when Kevin O’Donovan fisted the winner in the 72nd minute that he became Cork's fifth defender to get himself on the scoresheet, which is a great illustration of how Cork spread the scoring around.

It was extremely noticeable that Cork completely changed their kickout strategy for this game. 

The usual overload on the left wing was abandoned with Cork spreading out throughout the pitch to present themselves as options for Micheal Aodh Martin, with Killian O’Hanlon, in particular, being a reliable outlet.

Maybe it's a pure coincidence that this strategy got amended for Cork's first proper championship knock out game of the year, but one suspects that this was probably intentional. 

Whether it was or wasn't, this was certainly Cork's best performance from a kickout perspective for some time.

While O’Donovan may have scored the winner in injury time the period in this game where Cork made hay was between the 30th and 60th minutes, where Cork outscored their rivals by 1-10 to 0-4, as they turned a four point deficit into a five point lead. 

Roscommon had gone from being in complete control to being in shell shock mode.

Credit to them for responding though, as they slotted five unanswered points from the 60th minute to the 69th minute to level the game, but Cork had enough bottle to win it late on and send the home crowd home happy.

The point from O’Donovan was Cork's first score since Jones’ 59th minute score that had put them five up. 

That fade out would have led to huge regrets had Roscommon nicked it, but thankfully for John Cleary’s side they got over the line.

Last week Steven Sherlock provided huge impact from the bench and this week it was Chris og Jones and Conor Corbett who provided the Cork attack with extra bite late on.

Jones landed two crucial scores and had two assists, in what was his finest display for Cork to date, and Clyda Rovers youngster Corbett is finally starting to show some of the scoring instinct he displayed at underage level for Cork.

It is great that different players keep stepping up on different days which shows that even in the absence of the likes of Brian Hurley and Cathail O’Mahony Cork still have plenty match winners to call upon.