Ollie Baker was cursing his luck after his Offaly side were drawn away to Cork in the All-Ireland qualifier draw yesterday.
Offaly travel to meet Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, while Clare will host Dublin following yesterday’s live draw on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
He told the Irish Examiner: "Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh? After the loss against Galway you were hoping for some small favour to fall your way. A home draw at least, that’s what we wanted, but to have to travel down to Cork, to play the Allianz Hurling League finalists - that’s a huge, huge ask."
Cork put in a huge performance in just falling short against Tipperary in the Munster semis and Baker knows this will stand to the Rebels on 7 July.
"Even though they didn’t win the game, it was still a top-class performance by Cork. It’s going to make our job all the more difficult but sure look, that’s the way it is, we’re going to have to take them on and see how we do.
“It’s a tall order to try and pick ourselves back up again but the Galway loss (5-23 to 3-15) is history at this stage; we’re in the All-Ireland qualifiers now and we have to deal with that."
Baker continued: "I’m not going to play the poor mouth about it, we’ll play them, see how it goes. From my experience of Páirc Uí Chaoimh I know there’s going to be a big Cork crowd, a very expectant Cork crowd, and Cork have always been a team that can rise to an occasion like that.
"It’s a really tall order, we know that, but we’re going down there with the intention of putting in a big performance, give it our best shot. We’re competing well at times but that’s not good enough when you meet the likes of Galway, Cork, Tipperary or Kilkenny.
"Any time you meet one of those teams you’re going to be the underdog and you need all your players performing 100%. If anyone is letting you down, that can put the whole team under pressure."
