Cork camp hail 'very important' success over Kildare

Cork manager John Cleary was pleased what he described as a "very important" victory over Kildare in the battle to avoid relegation from Allianz Football League Division 2.

The Rebels have now eased their concerns while coming close to sealing the Lilywhites' fate as they inflicted a fifth consecutive defeat on their opponents.

It could have been different after the visitors hit two goals in the first half to take a five-point advantage.

But Cleary hailed an individual goal from Tommy Walsh which changed the game.

He told RTE Sport: "It was a very important win for us. We got out of the blocks very poorly. Kildare hit us with two sucker punches for goals. But I think the goal before half-time by Tommy Walsh really put us into the dressing-room in great stead. I thought we were a bit all over the place at times in the first half.

"But in fairness the lads worked it out amongst themselves and the goal before half-time was a very big score. We bossed the second half really. We let Kildare in for an easy penalty but overall we are happy enough.

"We could have got a few more scores in the end. We have two victories on the bounce after a poor start and hopefully we can drive on from this again."

One more win should seal Cork’s survival but Cleary is not getting ahead of himself with two matches to go.

Tight matches have been a feature of their campaign so far, with the victory today the most dominant scoreline for the season.

"All we’re doing all year is game by game," he summarised.

"We’ve Meath away next week and there’ll be a lot of swings and roundabouts in this league before it finishes. All we can is prepare for the Meath game as best we can, go up there and see where it takes us."

"Before (the Fermanagh victory) that I thought we