Tony Leen: So sweet for Cork, so sour if they don’t back it up

The Rebels stunned Jim McGuinness and Donegal on Saturday afternoon.

DAYS LIKE THESE: Cork's Eoghan McSweeney celebrates after the game. Pic: INPHO/Nick Elliott

THIS wasn’t the win Cork football needed – but it was one they surely craved.

They’ve made their dwindling band of evangelists and believers suffer the guffaws and the rolling eyes for springs and summers, and partly for that, even on the sunniest of days, there’s a but… The only constituency as thrilled with the Páirc Uí Rinn upset on Saturday was the GAA itself, desperate for someone to breathe life into the football group series. But Cork manager John Cleary has a keener awareness than anyone of the necessity to back this two-point win over Ulster champions Donegal up with a table-topping repeat against Tyrone in a fortnight.