Cork were second best for much of the first half last Saturday, but Horgan said the Rebel backroom team and manager John Meyler were calm at the break.

“We take the instructions he gives. There is no one in the dressing room roaring and shouting anymore.

“It’s just a case of what’s next, how we think as a group and what works for us, and we got the benefit of that Saturday night.”

Cork’s late surge secured their first win of the league campaign, as they outscored Clare 0-4 to 0-1 in the closing stages.

“For the last five minutes, we got a new lease of life, another lease of life that was just hard for them to deal with.

“They were pushing too hard to get a score and we swept up around our half-back line and midfield and got some good ball into our forwards and they seemed to be all over the shop trying to get a score. That is the way to do it and we were able to take our chances and pushed away at the end.”

It was a better display than Cork’s last outing, the defeat to Wexford in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“We know our strengths as a team, and that’s, obviously, moving the ball fast, running as much as we can, the ball moving fast on the ground and to hand, and it just seemed to be a little slower two weeks ago. We know that doesn’t suit us and that is what we lacked in the last couple of weeks. We did it a bit better against Clare, but I think there is still a lot of room for improvement there too.”

The Rebels visit All-Ireland champions Limerick next Sunday, but at least it’s on the back of their first league victory of the current campaign.

“We’ll just treat it like we would treat any other game. We will train twice this week and it will be just a case of seeing how you can improve as an individual at training and then go again. That was one nice thing out of Saturday night, the win, but to be fair we want a lot more out of this year and we will keep striving for that. Hopefully, [next Sunday], we will be able to get another one, but we will see, it’s a long week.”