John Cleary: We have prepared well for Roscommon challenge 

Cork manager John Cleary is fully aware of the task in hand for his side this weekend in their must-win clash.

The Rebels take on Roscommon knowing only a win will do to prolong their season in what is a huge All-Ireland SFC Group 2 Round 3 contest in Laois Hire O’Moore Park tomorrow (4.15pm).

The Leesiders come into the game struggling for form, having lost five of their last six championship games since the win over Donegal 12 months ago. 

They have lost their two group games in the All-Ireland series, away to Meath and home to Kerry. Victory is a must tomorrow in the last group outing. 

“There was every chance it was going to come down to this anyway,” the Castlehaven clubman says.

“Look, you’d love to be going in with a win under your belt and having confidence, we don’t have it. So, look, if we win it, we’re through, if we’re beaten, we’re out. Same for Roscommon. 

“I don’t think our form has been terribly bad. There were times in the Meath game where we were in control and it became an arm wrestle in the end. We didn’t get over the line and we were disappointed with different aspects of the game.

“The Kerry match was a completely different game then and, you know, we had plenty of chances in the first half. We probably gifted them a goal and just three points up at half-time when we felt we missed at least two goal chances to be further ahead. But the second half, we were against the wind and we were hoping that maybe we’d hold on to our lead for a bit longer.

“Kerry just punished us. I think that’s why they had the margin of victory that they had in the end.” 

There’s no doubt Cork have created plenty of chances this season, but failure to convert gilt-edged goal chances have proved costly so far. It’s something they have been working on though.

After scoring three goals against Donegal 12 months ago, it’s just two goals in six championship games since.

“There has been good saves and guys maybe didn’t pull the trigger in time and hadn’t had the composure in front of goal. We had big goal chances against Meath and Kerry. Hopefully on Saturday now might be a day to turn it around and convert those chances that we’re creating.

“If you want to progress to the next level, you know, this is the type of environment you’ve got to get used to.

“There’s a lot of teams in the same position as us and, you know, we think we’ve prepared well, we think we’ve trained well. We won’t really know until we get on to the stage on Saturday and see how we can perform.” 

Cleary fully understands the challenge ahead. Roscommon beat his team by 14 points in the Allianz Division 2 league meeting at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh back in March.

“We were very disappointed coming away from the Páirc that night. When we delved into it, I think we had a 25% conversion rate and Roscommon had 80% or 85%. They have very good forwards.

“If we let them play and they win the midfield battle, they will punish you because of the power and strength and finesse they have up front. Their form has been patchy enough, but looking at them over the last few weeks, at times they’ve been excellent.

“It's up to us now to try and limit them on Saturday. We know if we don’t, we saw first-hand what they can do up front when they get going. It’s our job, first of all, to try and win the ball around the middle from the kickouts and then to limit the amount of ball going into the Roscommon forward line.” the Cork boss concluded.