JOHN Cleary paid no heed to the “doom and gloom” around Cork football as they recovered from the heavy defeat to Roscommon with a vital eight-point victory over Louth.
Results on Saturday meant that his side entered the day in the Division 2 relegation places.
They ended it by leapfrogging the Wee County to boost their survival odds and take a step closer to Sam Maguire football.
Cleary said: “The consequences of the result were pretty big here.
“We put ourselves into a battle but thankfully, we came out fighting and got the job done.
“When we analysed the Roscommon game, and there was a lot of doom and gloom about it, the scoreline didn’t justify the way we played.
“We had 20 scoring chances and only scored five from play. And we gave them two goals.
“We won all the stats bar the scoreboard, which is the most important one.
“But we realised we weren’t a terribly bad team either and if we could brush up on a couple of things, which we did over the last couple of weeks, we had a chance coming in here.”
Backed by the wind, the Rebels showed their intent to target two-pointers, beginning with an early Brian O’Driscoll double.
Louth got off the mark through Sam Mulroy’s two-point free before O’Driscoll nailed his second two-pointer from play.
Cork scored nine of the final 10 points before the break, including a pair of Mark Cronin two-point frees to punish Louth indiscipline.
Returning captain Brian Hurley made it 0-15 to 0-4 at half-time.
Centre-forward Mulroy charged onto the ball to launch a two-point missile from the 45 but Cork quelled any comeback hopes with the next 1-3.
Colm O’Callaghan stitched the 43rd-minute goal for a 15-point lead.
Half-time substitute Ciarán Downey kicked a two-pointer and Mulroy notched three more sublime strikes from outside the arc but they could never close within eight points.
Cork 1-23
Louth 0-18
CORK: P Doyle; N Lordan, D O’Mahony, S Brady; M Taylor 0-1, R Maguire 0-2, B O’Driscoll 0-4, 2tp; I Maguire 0-1, C O’Callaghan 1-1; P Walsh, E McSweeney, S McDonnell; M Cronin 0-8, 2tpf, 1f, 1m, B Hurley 0-1f, C Óg Jones 0-3.
Subs: S Walsh for O’Callaghan 1-5 mins (temp), R Deane for McDonnell 43, C O’Mahony 0-2 for Hurley 53, C Cahalane for McSweeney 58, S Walsh for I Maguire 65, H O’Connor for Cronin 65.
LOUTH: N McDonnell; D McKenny, D Campbell, D Nally; L Gray, P Lynch, C McKeever; T Durnin, P Matthews; D McDonnell, S Mulroy 0-11, 4tp, 1tpf, 1f, A McDonnell 0-2; T Jackson, S Reynolds 0-1, R Burns.
Subs: C Downey 0-2, tp, for Reynolds h-t, E Carolan for Gray h-t, D McKeown 0-1 for Jackson 42 mins, F Malone for D McDonnell 46, C Brannigan 0-1 for Burns 64.
Referee: T Murphy (Galway).
