Kevin O’Donovan’s point in injury time, booked Cork’s place in the Sam Maguire Quarter Finals, as they narrowly edged a dramatic encounter against 14 man Roscommon.

Extra Time looked to be on the cards but the second half substitute raced in to point the winning score three minutes into stoppage time, Brian Hurley was ruled out before the tie and many felt that was enough to see Cork struggle, but a hard fought battle from them will see their names in the draw Monday morning.

Enda Smith was shown a straight red card for a punch deep into stoppage time as Cork were happy to wind down the clock, having seen Roscommon push them to the very death of this preliminary quarter-final.

A game of two halves, the first was slow and lethargic as Cork deployed bodies back to counter Roscommon, the second was action filled, goal chances a plenty too, Míchéal Martin with two big saves, while Conor Corbett’s goal was a huge momentum shift for his county in the second half.

Roscommon started the brighter as Ciaran Murtagh tapped over two early points, one from play followed by a free for a two point lead after three minutes, his cameo last weekend certainly aided Cork in overcoming Mayo, but Stephen Sherlock was named from the off today, his point a minute later got the Rebel County off the mark.

Míchéal Martin conceded a free just outside his area, the other Murtagh brother Diarmuid, stepped up to curl over the close range score and restore a two point lead for Roscommon after five minutes.

Cork were sitting deep as their visitors spent an awful amount of time working possession for a score, Brian O’Driscoll on the other hand pointed from an acute angle to again make it a one point game, but despite his sides defensive structure, Enda Smith was on hand to once again make it a two point game with a monster score.

Sherlock notched his second point this time from a free off a tight angle, coming to the end of the opening quarter it remained tight, but two points off frees for Ciaran Murtagh and another Diarmuid Murragh score coming from play, Roscommon were ahead 0-7 to 0-3.

Martin denied Smith a goal chance in the 22 minute dur9ng that Rossies purple patch, the goalkeeper putting out a strong hand to keep the net from being breached, momentum was with Roscommon, despite not playing the most stylish football, it was paying dividends.

Cork however would see out the remainder of the opening half in style, the half time whistle maybe coming at the wrong time, they had started to kick wides, but Sherlock pointed his second free off the afternoon gave them a new lease of life late on, the crowd too was awoken and that certainly willed them on.

Pressing on the Rossies kick out, they found two scores from their backline, Tommy Walsh and Matthew Taylor both hitting over the blackspot to leave a point between them at the break, the added time scores seeing Roscommon ahead 0-7 to 0-6, a well needed break for the visiting side.

Three minutes into the second half Rory Maguire another of the Cork rearguard came forward to tap over a score to level the tie, soon after another fine stop by Martin denied Diarmuid Murtagh this time, Connor Cox and Murtagh attacking well, Murtagh received the pass and shot for goal but the Cork net minder was big to send it out for a 45.

His opposite number Conor Caroll came forward to tap over the 45, their first score in almost 15 in game minutes, plus change, to restore the Roscommon lead, but again Cork hit the front and it was Maguire with his second of the half to level, before another pressing of the kick out, saw Chris Og Jones point to give Cork their first lead of the tie.

Not long after the Cork lead was extinguished, Smith put over a beauty to level the tie and then Diarmuid Murtagh off his left boot, crept as score inside the upright and it was a 0-10 to 0-9 lead in favour of the Rossies.

Almost a goal chance for Cork as Ian Magurie was lurking near the Roscommon goal, but the referee would award a free after the ball to Maguire evaded his grasp, Sherlock pointed from close range and this gamer remained hard to call, level once again.

Momentum swung back Cork’s way after they turned over the Roscommon kickout once again, Luke Fahy their fourth defender up to kick a vital point, that gave them the lead, but a long range free from Sherlock gave them a two point margin, their biggest lead of the tie.

Daire Cregg claimed a big mark and converted to cut the gap to one, but Roscommon lived dangerously, two errors at the back almost brought scores for Cork, a missp;laced pass saw Sherlock kick for the score but the umpires waved it wide, much to the displeasure of the home supporters, then the kickout was pressed and Chris Og Jones raced for goal but the ball slipped in his hands and wide.

A one point game, needed big scores to keep the momentum going, Cork hit the jugular, again their pressing of the kickout worked wonders, Brian O’Driscoll gathering possession to offload to the racing Conor Corbett, he continued his run after a handpass to Sean Powter, Powter returned the favour and Corbett’s left footed shot went into the net via the post.

Og Jones made it 1-13 to 0-11 before the hour mark, the game turning on it’s head, a one point lead turned to five in a matter of minutes, two Diarmuid Murtagh points kept Roscommon in the tie, a goal between them but Og Jones had the chance to put six points between them as he raced in on goal, but his shot went left and wide of the goal.

Daire Cregg, Diarmuid and Ciaran Murtagh kicked points at the death to level the tie going into stoppage time, but just as it looked like we had some more time at the Pairc to decide the winner, Kevin O’Donovan fisted over the game winning score, Roscommon pressed to force extra time but failed, Smith shown red just a few minutes later and that was that, Cork with two big performances now look forward to the quarter final stages.

Kerry picked up their first win in a hard fought Sam Maguire Round 2 tie against neighbours Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh this afternoon.

Despite the best efforts of the rebels and Brian Hurley in particular, a David Clifford second half penalty proved pivotal to victory, although slightly controversial as Cork fans thought the offense was committed outside the box.

Hurley did kick six points on the day but David Clifford and Sean O’Shea picked up 1-10 between them as the stars dragged Kerry over the line.

These sides await to see what happens between Mayo and Louth tomorrow, with Cork facing Mayo and Kerry who are strong favourites heading into a Louth tie next weekend to decide the group.

From the off Kerry looked the stronger side and managed to put an arm's length between them and their hosts.

Sean O’Shea who had a poor game against Mayo by his standards was up for it on this occasion picking up three of the first four scores for the Kingdom.

Cork managed to keep the board ticking Chris Og Jones, O’Driscoll and Hurley but four of the five Rebel scores in the opening half were answered by a Kerry score within three minutes, which kept the Kingdom comfortable up to the break at which they went in with a four point lead.

Cork came out with the perfect response to a poor first half picking up the first two scores to cut the deficit in half within four minutes. Despite the Kenmare man Sean O’Shea knocking over his fifth of the game, the Cork charge continued with Powter and Hurley bringing it back to a one point game within six minutes of the resumption.

The major moment in the match came about twelve minutes into the half when Sean Powter dragged down Paul Geaney right at the edge of the square and upon consulting his umpires referee David Gough pointed to the spot awarding a penalty and showed Powter a black card. David Clifford stepped up and made no mistake to restore the Kerry lead to a four point margin.

Kerry took advantage of the numbers to stretch out to a five point lead with two scores off the boot of David Clifford, a quiet four points to this point for the Fossa All-Star.

The Rebels never lied down, it would’ve been easy to write this off and move on to Mayo but Cork picked up the next three scores to bring the nerves to the Pairc and the score down to just two between the teams with four to go.

Clifford did restore a three point margin but Stephen Sherlock the Cork sub had a chance for goal but blazed the ball just over the bar for the point, a massive chance to level the game in the dying embers.

Tom O’Sullivan and Eoghan McSweeney exchanged scores in additional time but Kerry survived a massive scare from their neighbours and kickstarted their Championship campaign.