Clinical Cork are back on course

AN emphatic scoreline in anyone’s language but Conor Counihan wasn’t going to get ahead of himself.

Killarney is the blot on the copybook that won’t be Tipp-Exed until Kerry are beaten or the Sam Maguire Cup is retained.

Saturday was about attempting to move on from the Munster final defeat and the All-Ireland champions did so with great aplomb.

“Certainly we would be pleased,” said Counihan. “The fact that Daniel (Goulding) went off injured, other lads stepped up to the plate.”

Without Goulding, Cork amassed a handsome 1-15, a real shot in the arm after losing yet another classy left-footed forward.

In the wake of his fellow free-taker’s retirement from the game, Donncha O’Connor showed his leadership skills, adding seven points (three from play) to his 11th minute goal.

Even though they were 2-15 to 0-12 up at that stage, Counihan felt his side’s task was made that bit easier by the dismissal of Martin Clarke in the 57th minute.

“We haven’t had time to take it (the performance) in, but we got scores at important times. When they lost a man (Martin Clarke) it made it much easier for us. Down have had better days in Croke Park and we have to factor that in as regards our performance.”

But this was yet another day for Cork when their hard running at the opposition’s defence reaped dividends.

“We did run at them a bit, but we played good quality direct ball into Donncha too, who won it and that gave us a good option,” Counihan pointed out.

The Aghada man, though, was happy with his team’s first-half display. Last September, they were three points in arrears to Down at the break but not on this occasion.

After unacceptably slow starts against Kerry in the Munster showpiece and before that Dublin in the Division One decider, their five-point half-time lead — 2-8 to 0-9 — made for a welcome change.

Counihan admitted: “We certainly would have been very disappointed with our first half start in Killarney.

“We would have seen it as an area of improvement and in fairness the boys responded.”

The first-half also saw Cork score two goals to the delight of their manager.

“I don’t remember that much about them,” chuckled Counihan about O’Connor and Goold’s efforts. “I remember them rolling in — I don’t know were they that convincing! I’m not so sure they were clinical!”

Ah, but they were. Both coming in the first-half, executed coolly and with certainty. O’Connor’s came in the 11th minute, collecting a majestic kick-pass inside from Goulding before tucking it in under Brendan McVeigh.

That put four between the teams, 1-3 to 0-2, but Down responded, reeling off five points as opposed to Cork’s two in the following seven minutes.

And when Goulding went off in the 20th minute, it appeared the momentum had well and truly swung in the favour of last year’s All-Ireland runners-up.

It turned out to be a mirage.

After O’Connor stuck over a free, Alan O’Connor gathered a ball on the sideline, sucking in enough Down players to set Paddy Kelly free with a kick down the line.

Kelly sprinted forward and then laid off a centred hand-pass to Goold who, despite finding himself faced by McVeigh and a Down defender, found the net with a delicately-placed ground shot.

If Cork were lethal up-front, they were just as clinical in their attempts to stop Down. Clarke followed Goold’s goal with a free after Michael Shields cynically hand-tripped an advancing Kevin McKernan.

He got a yellow card for the foul but as much as the act was utterly condemnable it was supremely effective.

After O’Connor and then a wonder point from Paul Kerrigan extended Cork’s lead to six, McKernan did get his score to finish out the half.

Following a Clarke free, a fine Alan Quirke save denied Peter Fitzpatrick a goal in the 38th minute and it was another 17 minutes before Down improved their total.

By that time, Cork’s advantage stretched to 10 after three from O’Connor and a Kerrigan bracecoming either side of a Goold point. O’Connor added his third free of the game in the 54th minute and by that stage the contest was over.

Captain Graham Canty, who had been named in the team but didn’t start, was introduced by that stage, coming in for Noel O’Leary who had shipped a nasty head wound after an incident with Clarke in the opening stages. “He went okay in training on Wednesday night, but he felt a bit tight in the warm-up,” explained Counihan of the decision not to start Canty. “We were hopeful he’d get through it, but in the warm-up we just weren’t happy to start him by virtue of the fact that we might have to take him off.”

Clarke, who had picked up a yellow for that earlier tussle with O’Leary, was then yellow-carded again following an off-the-ball altercation with John Miskella.

It wasn’t his day nor was it Down’s. This was all about Cork.

Scorers for Cork: D O’Connor 1-7 (4f); F Goold 1-2; P Kerrigan 0-3; P Kelly 0-2; P Kissane, P O’Neill, D Goulding (f), G Canty, A Walsh, J Miskella 0-1 each.

Scorers for Down: M Clarke 0-3 (2f); B Coulter, P McComiskey 0-2 each; C Lavery, C Maginn, D Hughes, M Poland, K McKernan, A Rogers, C Laverty 0-1 each.

Subs for Cork: D O’Sullivan for O’Leary (temp 5-10); B O’Driscoll for Goulding (inj 20); F Lynch for O’Driscoll (inj 29); G Canty for O’Leary (51); M Collins for Walsh (60); R Carey for Cadogan (63).

Subs for Down: P Fitzpatrick for King (34); C Mooney for Clarke (42); A Rogers for McArdle (46); D O’Hagan for Branagan (49); P McComiskey for Maginn (53).

Referee: Michael Duffy (Sligo).