Four games in the top two divisions of the Allianz Football League yesterday and not a single home team managed a win. Cork
are now top of the pile, the only one of the eight teams in Division One to record back-to-back victories.
They travelled to Castleblayney for what turned out to be the game of the day, coming back down the road with a 2-14 to 1-16 win over Monaghan.
Colm O’Neill, with 2-6, was the match-winner as Monaghan fell to their league defeat at home since 2011.
"Castleblayney is a difficult place to come and win," said Cork manager Brian Cuthbert. "I thought Monaghan had the game when they went up by four points. There was only one team at that stage but then we got the goals and they got us back into it."
Sticky week
Elsewhere, the story of the day was Tyrone’s resurgence, beating Mayo in Castlebar by 1-11 to 1-7.
Mickey Harte
had endured a sticky week after a bad opening-night defeat to Monaghan but his side put in an old-school performance out west to take their opening points of the campaign.
“We weren’t happy with what happened last week,” said Harte. “I did believe at the time that we weren’t as bad as some people believed and I don’t believe that today we are a finished product or that the phoenix has risen.”
As for Mayo, Pat Holmes conceded that his side had been given a bit of a lesson.
“That is the first time we have been faced with a system where there was probably 15 behind the ball. But it is up to us to deal with it and we didn’t. There are a few teams using defensive systems and I expect we will see a bit more of it.”
The other Division One game saw Kerry go to Derry and at least get value out of the 900km round-trip with a 1-17 to 0-13 victory in which Paul Geaney scored 1-5 from play. And in Division Two, Galway skipped to the top of the table thanks to a scintillating 2-13 to 2-12 win over Westmeath in Mullingar.
