Counihan remains cautious

Cork 0-12 Donegal 0-10

A month ago Kildare plundered a win as they scored a late 2-1 to sucker the Rebels, but here the hosts benefited as a one-way period around the three -quarter stages turned a 0-7 to 0-5 deficit into a 0-12 to 0-7 lead. It was some small comfort after last August’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat and the league last four now looks to be a real possibility, but the victory was tempered by the first-half loss of Colm O’Neill with a suspected cruciate ligament injury.

“It’s important to get the two points, but getting Colm right would be a bigger bonus from our point of view,” said Cork manager Conor Counihan. “It’s two points on the board, another two and we’ll have Division 1 status secured. We’d be disappointed with the first-half performance, we had 12 chances but only took three. You wouldn’t be writing home about it, but it was a solid enough performance.”