Cork boss John Cleary on new league campaign: 'We hope public will get behind us'

Cork manager John Cleary says that it’s important to make their home venue a fortress this season.

The Rebels open their Allianz Division 2 Football League campaign on Sunday with Cavan the visitors to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh with a start time of 1.30pm.

Cork's home form can only be described as patchy in recent years. They will know that has to change this year especially when they have only three league games at home. 

“Cavan came down two years ago and we were expected to beat them and we didn’t and they’re that kind of a team,” Cleary says on the opener.

“It was our third defeat in the league in a row at that stage, so it put us in a really precarious position.

“We won by two points up there last year. You know, Cavan on their day can play very, very good football.

“We have been watching their progress in the McKenna Cup this year. We can see how they are going. Cavan always have good footballers. Maybe when they are least expected to win, they can come up trumps. They were only one point short of getting into Division 1 last year.

“We are expecting a big, big game on Sunday. We have to be on our toes, we have to be right and we have to be better than we were against Kerry if we want to get results in the league.” 

Given that Cork face two of the teams fancied to fill the two promotion spots away from home in the shape of Derry and Tyrone in March, it’s hugely important that they hit the ground running.

“We have a lot of long journeys now this year, we’re going to Derry and Tyrone and they’ll have big support and their home venues will be like going into the lion's den.

“So we hope that the public will get behind us when Cavan come down and we’ll hopefully put in a performance.

“Making the home ground a fortress, that’s what we’ll be trying to do.

“And look, we knew when the fixtures were made, we’ve been planning for this since last October. The league is paramount now for us and getting off to a good start. We know that.”