Senior footballers dig deep to find way past Cork

Sun, 6th March 2016

DUBLIN 2-14 CORK 2-10

Dublin showed the mark of champions when they came from eight points in arrears, 2-7 to 1-2 late in the first half, to defeat Cork in Saturday night's NFL Division 1 clash at Croke Park in front of a crowd of 20,280.

The victory, Dublin's fourth from as many starts, pushes them very close already to qualification for the semi-finals as they attempt to win four leagues in-a-row for the first time in Dublin's history.

Jim Gavin's men showed the self-belief and mettle that comes with continuous success as they woke from a sleepy first half display to outplay the Rebels in the second.

Cork led by seven points at the interval after a half during which Dublin failed for the large part to trouble the Cork rearguard who deploy extra defenders down the central spine of their defence.

Diarmuid Connolly's superbly taken goal lifted Dublin's hopes after they had trailed 1-4 to 0-0 inside 20 minutes and by the break Cork led 2-7 to 1-3.

The second half was a different story as the tempo and accuracy of Dublin's play improved by several gears while their give-and-go running game began to play dividends.

The deadball accuracy of Cormac Costello was unerring while the Whitehall Colmcille's man also curled over one beauty off his left foot.

A couple of late frees when the pressure was on put Dublin in front before the hard-working James McCarthy blasted to the net in the fourth minute of injury-time at the end of one of his trademark dynamic runs.

Dublin lost Jonny Cooper to a second yellow card in the 63rd minute but after being knocked back briefly they refocused and drove on to victory.

The Dubs also had one lucky escape at the back when Peter Kelleher's fisted effort under a dropping ball came back off the butt of the upright and was eventually cleared away from danger.

Next up is an away game against Down in Newry next Saturday night.

SCORERS - Dublin: C Costello 0-9 (0-08f), D Connolly 1-3 (0-1f, 0-1 '45'), J McCarthy 1-0, P Andrews 0-2. Cork: C O'Neill 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-2f), P Kelleher 1-0, B Hurley 0-2 (0-1f), P Kerrigan, C O'Driscoll, L Connolly (0-1f), R Deane, M Collins 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: M Savage; J Cooper, P McMahon, D Byrne; J McCarthy, C O'Sullivan E Lowdnes; B Fenton, E Ó Conghaile; P Flynn, D Connolly, C Kilkenny; C Costello, P Andrews, B Brogan. Subs: J Small for Lowndes (ht), M Fitzsimons for Fenton (ht), S Carthy for Ó Conghaile (48), D Rock for Brogan (49), K McManamon for Andrews (65), SB Carthy for Flynn (71).

CORK: M Martin; J O'Sullivan, E Cadogan, K Crowley; T Clancy, B O'Driscoll, K O'Driscoll; S Kiely, I Maguire; M Collins, L Connolly, C O'Driscoll; C O'Neill, P Kelleher, P Kerrigan. Subs: D Goulding for O'Neill (44), K O'Hanlon for Kiely (50), B Hurley for K O'Driscoll (54), R Deane for Connolly (57), A O'Sullivan for Kelleher (67), M Colllins (O'Donovan Rossa) for Kerrigan (70).

REF: P Neilan (Roscommon).