Cork boss Healy labels early National League game against Kildare as a must win for the Rebels

Cork manager Peadar Healy is targeting his side's clash with Kildare in the National League as a must win game for the Rebels if they are to seal promotion back to the top tier of the football league.

The Rebels were relegated alongside Down last year, and they have been hit by a number of retirements in the winter months as Paddy Kelly, Daniel Goulding and Fintan Goold all stepped away from the panel, but Healy is still aiming to bring the Munster men back into Division One at the first time of asking.

He has targeted the game against Kildare on February 13 in St Conleth's Park as a must win game on their road back to the top, with Cian O'Neill's side set for their first year back in Division Two following promotion last year.

"Obviously we want to get out of it (Division Two). The way the games are going the first two are away and they're big pressure games," Healy told the Corkman.

"We'll have to put our best foot forward against Galway and best foot forward against Kildare and we'll need one win there for sure. As you've seen with the like of Galway there are teams who've gone down to Division Two and stayed there, and found it very hard to get out of it.

"It's a very competitive league. Last year four teams finished up on six points [in Division One) we were one of them. One went through to the semi-final and we went down. It's that tight. You could that out there today. There's no one idle now, whether you're in Division Four or Division One. They're preparing for the National League early and everyone wants promotion," he said.