Can Cork hold their nerve against Roscommon this weekend?

All roads lead to Laois Hire O’Moore Park in Portlaoise this weekend as the Cork footballers' day of reckoning arrives.

The make-or-break All-Ireland SFC Group 2 Round 3 clash against Roscommon throws-in at 4.15pm on Saturday afternoon. It’s quite simple, John Cleary’s charges have to win to finish third at the expense of Roscommon to qualify for the knockout stages of the Sam Maguire.

The hope at the start of this group phase was that the Rebels would be in a better position with less stress on them, but they are in this predicament after two losses in the group, away to Meath and home to Kerry.

The reality is since beating a fancied Donegal side in Páirc Uí Rinn last year, Cork have lost five of their last six championship games. The only win was a patchy display in the Munster quarter-final away against Limerick over two months ago.

The Leesiders somehow have to throw all the eggs into one basket and bring a massive performance at the weekend otherwise it will be a disappointing campaign.

At the start of the group phase, the Rebels would have targeted two wins out of three. Cleary went on record to say that. The Kerry game was always going to be very tough, but the matches against Meath and Roscommon would have been boxed off where a victory was vital.

It has been well documented what happened in that opening group game in Navan on a day when the Royal County won on a scoreline of 1-13 to 0-12.

It all comes down to the weekend where the pressure will be on both teams. Cork started the group phase like a house on fire last year with two wins against Clare and Donegal only to lose to Tyrone to end up in third. It did book an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final spot.

Third will be the position they will finish if they manage to grind out a priceless win against Roscommon.

The most intriguing part of this upcoming encounter is that both arguably don’t even know themselves how it will go. Both teams have been so unpredictable meaning Saturday’s contest really is a 50/50 game.

For the winners, the season opens up for them. For the losers, there will be more questions than answers.