Cork eyeing league final after passing Kilkenny test 

Ben O'Connor's men kept their run going on Noreside.

Cork's Barry Walsh celebrates scoring a goal.

KILKENNY 1-15 CORK 3-12 

Cork’s inefficiency in front of goal threatened their 100% record but they now have a boot in a second successive Division 1A final.

With just two of nine goal chances being converted, their large presence in the 14,206 crowd in UPMC Nowlan Park knew they should have been out of sight long before substitute Alan Walsh’s goal confirmed the win in the 69th minute.

There were five goal chances in the opening seven minutes of the second half and none of them were taken. If Hugh O’Connor wasn’t being hooked as he was unloading at one end, Paudie O’Sullivan was keeping out Cian Kenny at the other.

Four of the opportunities fell to Cork, the last of them a penalty strike Alan Connolly sent wide after Ivan Bolger had brought down Barry Walsh in the 41st minute.

Bolger was sent to the sin bin for denying Walsh an obvious one-on-one with Aidan Tallis. Cork were almost cutting Kilkenny’s defence almost at will but the second goal didn’t arrive until Barry Walsh’s beautiful finish in the 52nd minute.

Seven up, Cork were still honing in for goals while Kilkenny were happy to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Kenny’s seventh free was followed by John Donnelly and Martin Keoghan’s scores.

Eoin Cody’s 63rd minute goal made it a one-point game. Driving forward, Liam Moore found the Ballyhale Shamrocks man, who had largely been anonymous up to that point, and his low puck was good.

A Connolly free eased some of the tension in the visiting numbers and then Walsh rose highest to claim a long-range free and his strike was true.

Kilkenny made it an exciting finish with Darragh Corcoran and a Kenny from a 65 finding their range but Cork held out for a deserved win.

Kilkenny won the toss and captain Corcoran elected to face a bellowing breeze in the first half. As ball rained down on their new full-back line in the opening five minutes, it appeared a gamble.

Brian Hayes bulged the net in the third minute. Connolly broke down a ball to himself, looped a handpass over Mikey Carey’s head to the supporting Hayes and he batted the sliotar passed Tallis.

Hayes almost doubled his goal total two minutes later but Tallis was equal to his shot and Connolly was put under enough pressure to prevent him striking home the deflection.

Kilkenny settled with three points, two of them Kenny frees, as Cork’s aggression spilt over a little. A misjudged pass allowed Keoghan in for the home side’s third point in the 13th minute.

Connolly converted two frees himself, one either side of an Ed McDermott effort at the other end. The Blackrock man sent over a 65 when Eoin Downey’s low percentage goal attempt was kept out and put over the endline.

For all their possession, Cork weren’t showing it on the scoreboard and David Blanchfield made it a two-point game in the 23rd minute.

But then came a barrage of Cork points after Connolly sent wide a 65, the result of a Darragh Fitzgibbon goal opening that was also kept out by Tallis.

Feasting on Kilkenny’s puck-outs, Cork hit them for four points in less than three minutes. A third Connolly free was followed by Tommy O’Connell, Hayes and William Buckley scores.

The Buckley score was a much-needed one for a Cork half-forward line that had been losing out too much to their markers.

Kilkenny’s one sniff of goal in the half came courtesy of a Paudie O’Sullivan slip-up, but Niall O’Leary was alert to put the ball out for a 65 before Paddy Deegan was able to make contact with it.

Kenny’s third free ended an 11-minute dry spell for Kilkenny but Connolly cancelled it out prior to the break.

Scorers for Kilkenny: C. Kenny (0-8, 7 frees, 1 65); E. Cody (1-0); D. Blanchfield, M. Keoghan (0-2 each); E. McDermott, J. Donnelly, D. Corcoran (0-1 each).

Scorers for Cork: A. Connolly (0-7, 6 frees, 1 65); B. Hayes (1-1); B. Walsh, A. Walsh (1-0 each); C O’Brien (sideline), T. O’Connell, W. Buckley, D. Fitzgibbon (0-1 each).

KILKENNY: A. Tallis; M. Carey, M. Butler, I. Bolger; K. Doyle, D. Corcoran (c), J. Molloy; R. Reid, D. Blanchfield; L. Moore, H. Kenny, P. Deegan; M. Keoghan, E. McDermott, E. Cody.

Subs for Kilkenny: J. Donnelly for E. McDermott (inj 46); T. Phelan for K. Doyle (55); L. Connellan for R. Reid (61); L. Hogan for M. Keoghan (66); D. Barcoe for I. Bolger (69).

Black card: I. Bolger (42-52).

CORK: P. O’Sullivan; S. O’Donoghue, D. O’Leary, N. O’Leary; E. Downey, C. Joyce, C. O’Brien; T. O’Mahony, T. O’Connell; D. Fitzgibbon (c), W. Buckley, H. O’Connor; B. Walsh, A. Connolly, B. Hayes.

Subs for Cork: E. Twomey for C. O’Brien (50); R. O’Flynn for H. O’Connor (59); G. Millerick for D. O’Leary (66); A. Walsh for B. Walsh (68); M. Mullins for T. O’Mahony (70+1).

Referee: T. Walsh (Waterford).