Cork ladies footballers can't afford to lose in Mayo or their season is over

The permutations are simple for the Cork ladies footballers.

They must beat or draw with Mayo tomorrow at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, throw-in 3pm, or they are out of the TG4 All-Ireland Championship.

However the easiest route is to win as it gets complicated if it ends in a draw.

The head-to-head is the first way of deciding who goes through but in this case that won’t apply.

So you would naturally think it would come down to scoring difference but it’s not as straightforward as that.

The regulations state that: “Should the head-to-head match between the two teams concerned have finished in a draw the team that finishes in the higher position will be the team that registered the highest number of points i.e. scores converted over the bar, in that head-to-head match.”

So if Cork draw with Mayo to go through they must make sure they have scored more points than the home side to advance.

It’s only at that stage, if they are even on points scored, that the actual scoring difference comes into play and on that Mayo would go through as they would be one ahead of Cork.

So to keep it simple the Rebels just need to win the game and take all the other possibilities out of play.

CAPABLE

They are more than capable of doing so and if they play like they did against Kerry in the first half last Saturday they will win.

But they need to put on that performance for the 60 minutes and not 30 as otherwise their season will come to an early end.

Last year Cork got to the semi-final and were a little unlucky to lose to Galway that day and to be fair to this bunch of players they are more than capable of matching that. For now, they won’t be thinking of anything but Mayo, a team never easy to beat, especially at home.

Mayo haven’t had a great season so far and as Cork return to Division 1 of the league they do in the opposite direction.

No surprise when you consider they have lost the likes of the Cafferky sisters - Lisa and Sinead - Rachel Kearns, Shauna Howley, Deirdre Doherty, Maria Cannon, Fiona McHale and Tara Needham in recent seasons. Add in Ciara Needham, Éilis Ronayne and Clodagh McManamon and they are very much in a rebuilding phase this season.

But there is still plenty of talent in their squad and they welcomed back Aoife Geraghty from a long injury against Kerry, when she came on in the second-half. They will be hoping she can last a bit longer against Cork. Annie Gough is another who is back after injury, and like Geraghty is a key player for her side in attack.

Other they will look to include the likes of Sinead Walsh, Clodagh Keane, Hannah Reape, Danielle Caldwell, Lucy Wallace and Saoirse Lally.

All well-known names in ladies football so Cork manager Joe Carroll will be well aware of the task ahead.

But Cork can take a lot from their first-half showing against the Kingdom, with Aine Terry O’Sullivan, Laura O’Mahony and Katie Quirke leading the attack.

All three impressed as did Abbie O’Mahony, who lines out at half-forward but she was everywhere for Cork last Saturday.

Hannah Looney and Maire O’Callaghan showed their class, as did the returning Sarah Leahy, along with Melissa Duggan and Shauna Kelly.

Aoife Healy, who always impresses, along with Looney and Libby Coppinger unfortunately find themselves caught up in a clash of fixtures again, with the camogie side playing at 2pm on the same day.

Healy and Looney will most likely feature for the footballers as this game is critical, with Coppinger unlikely to start in either due to injury.

It’s going to be a tough ask for Cork but one they can go into with confidence as they bid to secure a quarter-final spot.