Derry have beaten Cork 1-12 to 1-08 to book their place in the All-Ireland Semi-Finals, producing a calm and confident display to win the fixture comfortably.

Derry oozed their class to swat aside a spirited Cork side, who just didn’t have enough to match the back-to back Ulster Champions.

The sides went in for the half time break with just a point between them, Derry edging Cork on a tight scoreboard that reflected the evenly matched nature of both sides. Derry looked to have more control of the game and certainly created the better chances, but have fallen at the final hurdle and have been limited by a resolute Cork defence.

The opening minutes of the game were all Cork’s as they held onto possession calmly, poking and probing away at Derry’s red wall defence which was superb for the duration of the half. A Colm O’Callaghan point opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the game, but was responded to well by Ulster Champions Derry, who replied with four unanswered points of their own.

Shane McGuigan continued his impressive scoring record this season, converting two frees in as many minutes to give Derry the lead. Two scores from Paul Cassidy and an excellent score from Ethan Doherty extended Derry’s lead to four points, and, as half-time was approaching there was a sense that this could be a long afternoon for Cork.

Cork, however, responded brilliantly to the pressure put on them from Derry, and snapped back with three unanswered points in the closing minutes of the half to reduce the deficit to just a single point.

It was a ten-minute period that felt significant for the outcome of the game, as Cork managed to break through the stubborn Derry defence and produced some excellent scores through Ruairi Deane, Stephen Sherlock and Kevin O’Donovan, wrestling back the momentum in Cork’s favour.

With four wides in the opening half, for Cork to only be one point behind proves that this game was wide open. John Cleary will have been annoyed that his side failed to convert four chances, as they took on shots from difficult positions in acts of frustration.

The message from Cleary at half time will have been to remain patient in possession, but also to move the ball quicker in transition, as Derry overcommit in attack and are vulnerable to a quick counter attack.
Ciaran Meenagh’s message at half time must have been to stick to Derry’s original game plan, as they dusted themselves off from a late Cork surge at the end of the first half, and were on the scoreboard inside one minute of the second 35.

Scores from Ciaran McFaul and Shane McGuigan extended Derry’s lead over Cork, who had failed to score for the opening 12 minutes of the second half.

The game was suddenly brought to life in the 48th minute when Rory Maguire fisted in a goal after a clinical counter attack from Cork, reducing his side’s deficit to just one. There was a pulpable sense of optimism within the Cork fans who made the journey to Dublin, as the possibility of an All-Ireland Semi-Final looked attainable.

Derry responded in emphatic fashion, and from the resulting play 54 seconds later, they had got a goal themselves through the boot of Conor Doherty, who calmly slotted the ball into the bottom-right corner. With that strike, you could feel the energy leave the game, and Derry would march on to take a comfortable victory over the Rebels.

Both sides were able to muster three more points apiece in the remaining 15 minutes, but Cork were unable to seriously threaten Derry, who sucked all energy out of the game and took complete control of possession.

Derry played out the clock and greeted the full-time whistle with a chorus of cheers as they head into the All-Ireland Semi-Finals.