Two unpredictable teams as Cork face Roscommon with season on the line 

Cork and Roscommon head into Saturday’s crunch final game of Group 2 of the All-Ireland SFC series with no momentum nor a huge amount of confidence behind them.

Laois Hire O’Moore Park in Portlaoise is the venue with a start time of 4.15pm. A win for either side though will book a ticket to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals, but for the losers, it will be a long off-season with hard questions to answer and regrets. A draw would do Roscommon, but I don't think that will be their mindset.

The fact of the matter is that we have two of the most unpredictable teams in the country facing off at the weekend. Cork have lost three of their four championship matches this year, with the only victory coming against Limerick in the Munster quarter-final.

For Roscommon, they did beat London in their Connacht quarter-final, but since then, have lost heavily to Galway and Kerry and drew with Meath. Before all of that, they limped over the line to gain promotion in the league.

It’s genuinely very hard to predict how the game will go, but one thing we can be sure of is that it won’t be a 14-point margin between the sides like the previous encounter.

It would be brilliant though if that did happen from a Cork point of view, but just over three months ago, Roscommon came down to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh and won by 14 points, 2-21 to 0-13, in the Allianz Division 2 league.

While it was John Cleary’s biggest defeat in his three-year reign as Cork boss, the scoreline is probably a bit misleading.

Everything that could have possibly gone wrong that evening for the Leesiders, went wrong, while it was the opposite for Roscommon.

The Rebels made some uncharacteristic mistakes in defence, missed some glorious goal chances and were equally punished for their wide count, which reached 13 to Roscommon’s three by the finish.

It does seem a familiar story though for Cork in big games and something similar happened the last day against Kerry.

The worry is that there is a tendency for that to happen if they aren’t tuned in. If they are on it, they are more than capable of beating Roscommon.

But in of nailing your colours to the mast for Saturday, all bets are off. It’s knockout championship football at its best with everything to gain and everything to lose.

Below are the scorers and teams from the sides last meeting back in March.

Scorers for Cork: M Cronin 0-8 (0-4 f, 1 2pt, 1 2pt f), C O’Mahony, P Walsh, S Powter, C O’Callaghan (m), C Óg Jones 0-1 each.

Roscommon: D Murtagh 0-7 (2 2pt f, 0-2 f), C Hand 0-6 (2 2pt, 0-1 45), B O’Carroll 1-3, E Smith 1-0 pen, S Cunnane (m), R Dolan, C Murtagh (f), N Daly, U Harney 0-1 each.

CORK: P Doyle; S Brady, D O’Mahony (c), N Lordan; T Walsh, R Maguire, M Taylor; I Maguire, C O’Callaghan; P Walsh, B O’Driscoll, S McDonnell; M Cronin, C Óg Jones, C O’Mahony.

Subs: S Powter for T Walsh (43), R Deane for C O’Mahony (45), S Walsh for S McDonnell (57), C Cahalane for P Walsh (58), H O’Connor for C Óg Jones (65).

ROSCOMMON: C Carroll; P Frost, J McManus, N Higgins; S Cunnane, D Murray, R Dolan; E Smith, K Doyle; B O’Carroll, U Harney, C Hand; D Murtagh (c), C McKeon, C Lennon.

Subs: C Murtagh for C McKeon (h-t), R Daly for J McManus (45), E Nolan for U Harney (50), D Ruane for C Lennon (61), N Daly for R Dolan (65).

Referee: S Lonergan (Tipperary).