Cork oust Mayo for semi-final clash with Kerry

Cork 0-16, Mayo 1-10 (result)

Colin Corkery and Brendan Jer O'Sullivan broke Mayo hearts with a magical display of point-scoring as Cork breezed through to the All-Ireland football semi-final at Croke Park.

Now little Sligo are the sole Connacht survivors in the series, following Mayo's failure to trouble the Rebels.

Corkery finished with six points, O'Sullivan kicked four and on the day, Pat Holmes's side never looked like scoring a first-ever win over Cork.

Mayo made a promising start with a David Brady point, but Cork quickly settled to take the game to their opponents.

Joe Kavanagh scooped the ball over the bar after his shot was saved by Peter Burke, and Colin Corkery, winning his key battle with David Heaney, thumped over a point.

Philip Clifford, Graham Canty and substitute Colin Crowley also found the target as Cork eased into a 0-05 to 0-02 lead.

And the game sparked into spectacular action when both goalkeepers pulled off superb saves.

First Kevin O'Dwyer kept out a snapshot from Mayo flyer Brian Maloney, then Burke made a stunning stop from a Brendan Jer O'Sullivan screamer.

And it was Cork who continued to boss the contest, with four wonderful scores, two each from Corkery and O'Sullivan to build up a six point lead.

Mayo closed the gap through Trevor Mortimer and substitute Ciaran McDonald, but they trailed by four points at the break.

Mayo continued to struggle at midfield in the second-half, where Nicholas Murphy and Graham Canty dominated, and further scores from Corkery, Crowley and O'Sullivan saw Cork move five clear.

Mayo shot some bad wides and had another goal bid brilliantly saved by O'Dwyer from David Tiernan.

But they lacked the team work individual flair and scoring power enjoyed by the Rebels, with O'Sullivan cutting swathes through their defence and shooting some five scores.

Another breath-taking Cork effort from the sideline opened up a six-point gap. O'Dwyer had to produce another big stop to tip a Maloney effort over the bar, but could do nothing to keep out Ciaran McDonald's injury-time penalty.