Dublin Hurling

CORK 1-17 DUBLIN 0-15

The concession of a soft goal eight minutes into the second half cost Dublin dearly in the All-Ireland SHC qualifier in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 12,616.

A very determined Dublin pushed their more illustrious opponents all the way but were left to rue the only goal of the game when goalkeeper Gary Maguire had a handpass inercepted by Joe Deane who angled low to the net.

However, Dublin did not drop their heads with the defence particularly effective – led by the likes of Niall Corcoran, Tomas Brady and Ronan Fallon.

Cork led 0-10 to 0-6 at half-time. THe Rebels settled first with early points from Joe Deane and midfielder Tom Kenny but two David OCallaghan pointed frees had the sides level after ten minutes.

Four points without reply from John Gardiner (free), Kenny, Eoin Cadogan and Jerry OConnor from long range suggested the home side might cut loose.

But the Dubs rallied and looked the more likely side on a couple of occasions to create goal-scoring opportunities.

Points from OCallaghan (two) and Ross OCarroll reduced the deficit to the minimum, 0-6 to 0-5, heading into the last ten minutes of the first half.

On the restart Dublin threw down the gauntlet to the Rebels with quickfire points from OCallaghan and OCarroll to make it 0-10 to 0-8 but disaster struck shortly afterwards when Deane rattled the Dublin net.

As if to highlight how the difference between defeat and victory can be so frustratingly close Cork goalkeeper Donal Og Cusack produced a superb full-length save to deny OCarroll a goal.

Points from sub Paul Ryan and OCarroll cut the gap to a goal with 12 minutes of normal time remaining and to the finish the sides swapped scores with the goal that they required not coming for the Dubs.

SCORERS – Cork: J Deane 1-1, C Naughton 0-3, T Kenny, J OConnor, B OConnor (0-1f), N Ronan 0-2 each, J Gardiner (0-1f), E Cadogan, N McCarthy, P Cronin, P Horgan 0-1 each. Dublin: D OCallaghan 0-10 (0-7f) R OCarroll 0-3, P Ryan 0-2.
CORK – D Og Cusack; S ONeill, D OSullivan, B Murphy; E Cadogan, J Gardiner, C McGann; J OConnor, T Kenny; B OConnor, N McCarthy, T McCarthy; C Naughton, N Ronan, J Deane.
DUBLIN – G Maguire; N Corcoran, K Ryan, T Brady; S Hiney, R Fallon, J Boland; J McCaffrey, S Lambert; J Burke, D ODwyer, D Qualter; D OCallaghan, K Flynn, R OCarroll.