Kerry keep final pressure on Cork

FIVE years ago, Jack O’Connor’s Kerry escaped from Monaghan with a hard-earned one-point win and the Kingdom manager later pinpointed the experience as a crucial staging post on the county’s path towards another All-Ireland title.

O’Connor hailed the mental toughness his charges showed in Scotstown in 2006 and the game’s worth was highlighted further the following two summers when the Ulster team pushed Kerry close in successive championship tussles.

Yesterday’s appointment in Inniskeen is unlikely to be weighted with any such significance in the months and years to come, particularly in light of the hosts’ rapid decline, but Kerry once again found Monaghan’s stony grey soil to be fertile territory.