{"id":294673,"date":"2026-02-12T18:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/294673\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:59:11","slug":"cork-footballers-take-on-offaly-on-sunday-for-first-time-in-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/294673\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork footballers take on Offaly on Sunday for first time in four years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cork footballers face Offaly this weekend for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n

The Rebels travel up to Glenisk O\u2019Connor Park in Tullamore on Sunday for the third game in the Allianz Division 2 Football League with throw-in at 2pm.<\/p>\n

Both sides come into the encounter in contrasting form, Cork have four points on the board after wins over Cavan and Louth while Offaly lost to Louth and Kildare.<\/p>\n

The Leesiders will be keen to get another two points to maintain their strong start to the season.<\/p>\n

\" Cork’s Mark Cronin shoots against Louth. Picture: Moya Nolan<\/p>\n

They certainly won\u2019t be underestimating the challenge of Offaly. It was only four years ago when Cork were very lucky to get out of Tullamore with a victory.<\/p>\n

It meant safety for John Cleary\u2019s side, who was in interim charge at the time, on the final day of the regular league campaign.<\/p>\n

That loss resulted in demotion for Offaly as the game finished on a scoreline of 1-21 to 1-20.<\/p>\n

When the need was greatest, Cork stepped up to the plate, edging an incredibly tense encounter by claiming three of the last four scores, having trailed by a point approaching injury-time.<\/p>\n

Cleary\u2019s reaction when the final whistle sounded told the story as he let his hair down running on to the pitch to celebrate with his players.<\/p>\n

\"MattyMatty Taylor of Cork is congratulated by Cork interim manager John Cleary after victory over Offaly in 2022. Picture: Sam Barnes\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

It was a big moment for Cork football. It\u2019s doubtful Cleary will celebrate in a similar fashion if the Rebels were to pick up another victory on Sunday, but it would be another huge two points in Cork’s\u00a0quest to return to Division 1 for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n

Scorers for Cork: S Sherlock 0-9 (0-4 f), C O\u2019Mahony 1-1, B Hurley (0-1 m), J O\u2019Rourke 0-3 each, C O\u2019Callaghan 0-2, M Taylor, B Murphy, C Kiely 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

Offaly: N McNamee 0-7 (0-2 f, 0-2 m), A Sullivan 1-3 (1-0 pen), B Carroll 0-3, R McNamee 0-2, N Darby, K O\u2019Neill, C Flynn, P Dunican (f), J Moloney 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

CORK: M A Martin; K O\u2019Donovan, K Flahive, T Walsh; J Cooper, R Maguire, M Taylor; I Maguire, C O\u2019Callaghan; D Dineen, E McSweeney, J O\u2019Rourke; S Sherlock, B Hurley, C O\u2019Mahony.<\/p>\n

Subs: B Murphy for E McSweeney (47), M Cronin for C O\u2019Mahony (51), C Kiely for K Flahive (52), B Hartnett for D Dineen (59), F Herlihy for J O\u2019Rourke (69).<\/p>\n

OFFALY: P Dunican; K Dolan, J Lalor, N Darby; L Pearson, D Hogan, C Doyle; C Donoghue, J Hayes; D Hyland, R McNamee, B Carroll; J Moloney, N McNamee, A Sullivan.<\/p>\n

Subs: C Flynn for L Pearson (23, inj), M Abbott for D Hyland (51), K O\u2019Neill for C O\u2019Donoghue (52), C Donnelly for C Doyle (55), B Allen for A Sullivan (68).<\/p>\n

Referee: N Cullen (Fermanagh).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cork footballers face Offaly this weekend for the first time since 2022. The Rebels travel up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-294673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}