Donegal face Tyrone this evening as Cork look on

THE Cork senior footballers can enjoy a bit of downtime this weekend as they sit back and enjoy the action.

The Rebels defeated Clare in a tight and tense encounter last Saturday in the All-Ireland SFC Group 3 Round 1 clash at Cusack Park in Ennis on a scoreline of 1-13 to 1-11. The significance of that victory couldn’t have been overstated enough after the game with the delight and relief of the management and players telling the story.

The performance wasn’t pretty, but the most important thing for the Leesiders was that they collected the two points and are now in a strong position to qualify for the knockout stages given three teams out of four progress to the knockout stages.

The other two teams in the group get their Sam Maguire campaign underway this evening as Ulster heavyweights Donegal and Tyrone meet in what should be an intriguing tie at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey at 7.15pm.

Tyrone joint-manager Brian Dooher was an interested spectator at Cusack Park last weekend as he regularly made notes of what was happening and he had no better view on the halfway line, right in front of the press box and also right behind the former secretary of the Cork County Board Frank Murphy.

Cork boss John Cleary did make the long trip up to Clones for the Ulster final two weeks ago to take in Donegal beating Armagh on penalties and whether the Castlehaven club man takes in proceedings in Ballybofey later on remains to be seen. Regardless, Cork will be watching.

It will be a quick turnaround for Jim McGuinness and his Donegal troops as they will have to make the long journey down south to meet Cork next Saturday at what should be a vibrant Páirc Uí Rinn with throw-in at 2.30pm. This evening’s match will take a lot out of both sides, mentally and physically and you have to say the Leesiders will have an advantage from that point of view next weekend.

Tyrone are at least on home soil and with the greatest of respect to Clare, Tyrone should be able to get through that especially given the depth of their panel. But, Donegal will have to make the five-hour bus journey down to Leeside and stay overnight and so on.

The Rebels know only too well about all of that, given they were only above in Ballybofey back in January of this year and got a right trimming by Donegal that day as they were well beaten on a scoreline of 1-20 to 2-6 in the first Allianz Division 2 football league match of the season.

Going back to this evening’s fascinating battle and another caveat is that both Donegal and Tyrone met as recently as four weeks ago in the Ulster championship semi-final at Celtic Park in Derry on a day when the gold and green came out victorious after extra time, 0-18 to 0-16. And of course Donegal went on to lift the Anglo-Celt Cup.

Had Cork lost last weekend to Clare, it would have been a long two weeks to stew on the defeat and it could have happened right at the end. In truth, it shouldn’t have got to that stage, as the Rebels should have been out of sight, but the Banner County had a couple of half goal chances which would have won the game for them, but Cork held strong and the celebrations at the end said it all.

The pressure is off to a certain extent and not many people will fancy the Rebels to pick up a win in the next two group matches, but that’s dangerous talk given how close they were to beating Kerry last year in the group stage and they took down Mayo.

Donegal could be coming to Páirc Uí Rinn next weekend with right momentum behind them or else they could be gunning for the two points after defeat to Tyrone. Either way, you would imagine Cork will be prepared for both scenarios and ready to give the home support something to shout about.