News

Horgan’s goal floors Dublin after sending off

November 8, 2018

CORK 1-24 DUBLIN 1-19

Dublin’s dream of reaching an All-Ireland SHC decider was crushed in Sunday’s enthralling semi-final at Croke Park.
In a clash where the pace was unrelenting and the sides were level on 15 occasions the game turned in in the Rebels direction following sending off of Ryan O’Dwyer in the 50th minute (second yellow card).
The Dubs were leading at that stage 1-16 to 0-18 with Anthony Nash’s resulting free bringing the sides level.
Anthony Daly’s men looked to be coming with momentum prior to O’Dwyer’s dismissal with Conal Keaney and the outstanding Danny Sutcliffe causing problems for the Cork defence but subsequently the Dubs were fighting an uphill battle against such a pacey side who used possession wisely and kept unforced errors down to the minimum.
If the sending off of the Crokes man was the first blow Cork’s 66th minute goal when Patrick Horgan swept the sliotar to the net as Gary Maguire looked to have it under control sealed Dublin’s fate.
Dublin were also left to rue a number of missed frees as Paul Ryan’s usually radar accuracy let him down as he failed with three second half chances.
The action swept one way and back the other in a frenetic opening half. Every time Dublin threatened to up the gears Cork matched them with Nash’s massive puckouts keeping the Dubs on the back foot throughout.
The Rebels were also quicker to control a lot of the breaking ball in the opening half and used possession intelligently to put the likes of Lorcan McLoughlin powering at the heart of the defence as his slotted three first half points.
The introduction of Shane Durkin helped to quell the Kanturk man’s influence as the sides went toe-to-toe in front of the crowd of 62,092.
Cork led by the minimum at the interval, 0-15 to 1-11, with David Treacy kicking home Dublin’s goal in the 30rd minute following a good pass from Ryan.
But typical of a very focussed Cork side they responded immediately with a Horgan free – a sequence of scores which typified the even nature of this epic duel.

SCORERS – Cork: P Horgan 1-7 (0-5f), A Nash (3f), L McLoughlin, C Lehane 0-3 each, S Harnedy, L O’Farrell 0-2 each, D Kearney, P Cronin, J Coughlan, S Moylan 0-1 each. Dublin: P Ryan 0-6 (5f, 1 ’65′), D Sutcliffe 0-4, D Treacy 1-1, C Keaney, D O’Callaghan 0-2 each, J McCaffrey, J Boland, R O’Dwyer, S Durkin 0-1 each.
DUBLIN: G Maguire; N Corcoran, P Kelly, P Schutte; S Hiney, L Rushe, M Carton; J McCaffrey, J Boland; C Keaney, R O’Dwyer, D Sutcliffe; P Ryan, D O’Callaghan, D Treacy. Subs: S Durkin for Hiney (23), S Lambert for Carton (50), M Schutte for Treacy (51), E Dillon for O’Callaghan (61), R Trainor for P Schutte (inj 72).
CORK: A Nash; S McDonnell, C O’Sullivan, S O’Neill; T Kenny, C Joyce, W Egan; L McLoughlin, D Kearney; S Harnedy, J Coughlan, P Cronin; L O’Farrell, P Horgan, C Lehane. Subs: S White for Kenny (45), C Naughton for Coughlan (64), S Moylan for Lehane (69).
REF: J Owens (Wexford).
ATT: 62,092.