Determined Derry defeat Cork to reach All-Ireland semis

The back-to-back Ulster Champions join Monaghan and Kerry in the last four.

INTO THE SEMIS: Derry's Conor Doherty celebrates after scoring a goal. Pic Credit ©INPHO/John McVitty

All-Ireland Senior Football Quarter-Final

Derry 1-12 Cork 1-8

A game that met most pre-match expectations. And fears. The thinking was that Cork would push Derry without quite doing enough and that they did. The concern that it would prove to be a hard watch? That, unfortunately, came to pass with it.

Another All-Ireland semi-final it is then for the Ulster champions who will aim to go at least one step further than last year’s exit to Galway in the last four. For Cork, a quarter-final exit is nothing new but maybe they will view this summer’s whole body of work more kindly.

Such debriefs are for another day. This wasn’t to be theirs.

There were no surprises from the off. Cork owned the ball for the opening three minutes but Derry sure as hell dictated the terms and that laborious first ‘attack’ finally petered out with Steven Sherlock skewing a point attempt wide of the posts.

It was a scene repeated time and again from there on in with John Cleary’s side looking for a way through, around or over the red sea. Each score mined was extricated only after immense toil and patience.

Conor Glass of Derry and Colm O'Callaghan of Cork contest a kickout. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Derry’s nuance on top of the defensive wall that has come to typify Gaelic football has been a sharper edge in attack and there were times when they advanced en masse on the turnover. Their scores arrived that bit quicker but it was all so difficult to watch.

The game was played out to little soundtrack from stands that filled up as the day wore on with the influx of fans from Dublin and Mayo. One brief flurry of entertainment in the second-half aside and it was a forgettable couple of hours.

Cork’s conundrum was when to push and when to row back. They had opportunities to get in behind the Ulster line in a tighter first-half but found themselves unable to knit sufficient passes or steps together to make these incursions pay.

Moments of genuine thrill were strictly rationed, the noise in the stands reserved mostly for turnovers, of which there many, but Cork did at least claim the last three points of the half to leave a deficit of just one at the break.

The sense of a game slowly beginning to loosen up, like a pair of new jeans after its first wash, was obvious on the restart when Brian O’Driscoll mishit a goal attempt wide after trundling through the middle.

Derry were finding new seams to inspect themselves but Cork struck gold first with Matty Taylor finding Conor Corbett on the end line and the forward’s fist pass back inside palmed to the net by the onrushing Rory Maguire.

One in it, but not for long.

The next Derry attack cancelled that out, Conor Doherty finding the other net after being played into the danger area by Eoghan McEvoy and selling an outrageous dummy to the scrambling Ruairi Deane before picking his spot.

Doherty had another goal attempt blocked by another last-ditch defensive effort soon after but this madness proved to be temporary, both teams soon straightening their ties again and going about their business with a lot more restraint.

Three points was as close as Cork would get in the last quarter as Derry kept a lid on things at one end and scouted for chances at the other, Micheal Martin denying Shane McGuigan a goal in injury-time with a penalty save.

Scorers for Cork: R Maguire (1-0); C O’Callaghan (0-2); S Sherlock (0-2 ‘45’s); K O’Donovan, R Deane, C Og Jones and E McSweeney (all 0-1).

Scorers for Derry: S McGuigan (0-4 frees); C Doherty (1-0); B Rogers, E Doherty, P Cassidy (all 0-2); C McFaul and N Loughlin (both 0-2).

Cork: M Martin; M Shanley, R Maguire, T Walsh; K O’Donovan, D O’Mahony, M Taylor; C O’Callaghan, I Maguire; B O’Driscoll, R Deane, K O’Hanlon; S Powter, S Sherlock, C Corbett.

Subs: B Heron for Toner (46); L Murray for Loughlin (56); P Cassidy for McFaul (59); S Downey for McEvoy (66); P McNeil for Doherty (73).

Derry: O Lynch; C McKaigue, E McEvoy, C McCluskey; C Doherty, G McKinless, P McGrogan; C Glass, B Rogers; N Toner, P Cassidy, E Doherty; C McFaul, S McGuigan, N Loughlin.

Subs: E McSweeney for O’Hanlon (40); C Og Jones for Powter (51); B Hurley for Sherlock (56); J O’Rourke for O’Driscoll (59); P Walsh for Deane (67).

Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan).

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