It’s do or die for Cork in

Armagh v Cork

WE have been here on many occasion over the last few years yet the answers seem as far away now as they did three years ago.

Cork slumped to another disappointing showdown loss last Saturday to a Donegal side that at times looked so far ahead of Cork it really was hard to believe that they were playing in the same division at all. All that said, this, for long periods was one of Cork’s best performances in some time.

Cork, as we all know by now, are struggling all over the pitch and can’t seem to find the answers when teams come asking the questions.

Nobody can honestly say that there aren’t enough players to pick from in Ireland’s largest county, nor can they say that the players that are there aren’t putting in everything they have – because when you stand pitch side and see the current crop trudging from the pitch after another heavy loss, few would say that these players haven’t given their all.

Cork also have plenty of ammunition on the sidelines with no stone seemingly left unturned as Ronan McCarthy and his back-room team go in search of something like divine intervention, or in the absence of a miracle perhaps just a bit of luck.

When you are down everything seems to go against you and in Cork falling attendances, hefty numbers of injuries and nothing on the morale front has all started to take its toll.

It is genuinely difficult to stand outside the Cork dressing room after a game these days as the eerie silence from 20 exhausted and emotionally drained competitors barely raises above the sounds of the equipment being packed away. No laughing, jeering, slagging or even talking – it’s a tough place to be playing the game you love.

Last Saturday afternoon little over 1,200 people bothered to pay through the turnstiles with plenty making the trip to see the ladies hammer Donegal’s top female side while most of the others came to see the Ulster Championship side.

Without the breakdown, it is hard to be totally accurate but there is a good possibility, based on the crowd participation during the game that there were more Donegal supporters than Cork fans in Páirc Uí Rinn last Saturday – and that really does put this campaign into perspective. Cork started well and showed plenty of heart, resilience and no shortage of skill in the opening half and quite honestly well-deserved their first half five-point lead.

Cork looked like they had a plan, players were getting forward and while some of the defending required a bit of luck and in the case of Kevin Crowley’s magnificent intervention on the quarter hour mark to stop Caolan McGonagle in his tracks when a goal looked inevitable, no shortage of desire.

Cork were as good for the second 20 of the first half as they have been all year and there was little doubting, even considering the wind was to their backs, that Donegal were a little rattled.

Cue the second half and Cork didn’t go away. They managed to keep the margin to four, three and then two points by the 55th minute, but inevitably the north-