Senior footballers finish in a scoring flurry to defeat Cork

ALL-IRELAND SFC GROUP 2 PHASE 1

DUBLIN 5-18 CORK 1-17

Goals win matches and Dublin hit Cork for five in Saturday night's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final Group 2 Phase 1 clash at Croke Park.

It was something of a mixed bag display by Jim Gavin's men in front of an attendance of 30,214 as they finished in a scoring blitz to defeat the Rebels by 13 points.

Next Saturday Dublin face Roscommon, beaten by Tyrone at home earlier on Saturday, in Croke Park while Cork meet Tyrone in the curtain-raiser.

Afterwards Dublin manager Jim Gavin praised saying: "This Dublin team has been very resilient over the years. They (Cork) got it back to three points in the second half and our lads responded very well to that. It was all hands on deck.

"I think we did well to limit Cork to 1-17, they are a very potent side. We might have got a penalty claim (early on) but they looked really strong. We probably took out goal chances a bit better than they did, and that was the difference in the end."

Dublin's final scoreline hides some of the facts as with 12 minutes remaining the game was in the 'melting pot' as they led by a single goal, 2-14 to 1-14, before in a whirlwind finish blew Cork apart.

That conclusion was the polar opposite to how the contest had begun with the Rebels sweeping into an early 0-4 to 0-0 lead with Dublin stuck in the starting blocks thanks to points from Kevin O’Driscoll, Seán White, Paul Kerrigan and Ruairí Deane

But by the interval Dublin had more than recovered to lead by six points (2-9 to 0-9) thanks to Michael Darragh Macauley's goal, created by Cormac Costello, just before the interval after the Dubs swept forward with ruthless efficiency.

Dublin's won't have been happy with aspects of their play in the early part of the second half when they could have put greater daylight between the side before the Rebels rocked their opponent with a 46th minute Luke Connolly penalty to reduce the gap to just two points.

And then driven on by the likes of Brian Fenton heading in the final ten minutes Dublin hit the turbo booster.

On 62 minutes Niall Scully timed his run from the middle of the park to clinical effect to arrive into the danger zone and apply the finish to the Cork net following great approach play by the highly influential duo of Jack McCaffrey and Con O'Callaghan.

Four minutes later Paddy Small, who had just been introduced as sub, cut out a short Cork kickout by Mark White and fed Ciarán Kilkenny who did the rest to hit Dublin's fourth goal.

The house had collapsed around Cork at that stage before Brian Fenton crashed a thunderbolt to the net at full throttle after being placed by a great Jack McCaffrey pass.

Before the finish Jonny Cooper, absent since the club championship in April due to injury, and James McCarthy, who got injured in the Leinster final, were introduced.

SCORERS - Dublin: D Rock 0-5 (0-3f, 0-1 '45'), C Kilkenny 1-2, C O'Callaghan 0-4, B Fenton 1-1, J McCaffrey, MD Macauley, N Scully 1-0 each, P McMahon, P Mannion 0-2 each, C Costello, J Small 0-1 each. Cork: L Connolly 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-1 '45'), P Kerrigan, B Hurley (0-1f) 0-3 each, M Hurley 0-2, K O’Driscoll, S White, R Deane, M Collins (0-1f), L O’Donovan, M Taylor 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; D Byrne, M Fitzsimons, P McMahon; J Small, C O’Sullivan, J McCaffrey; B Fenton, MD Macauley; N Scully, C Kilkenny, B Howard; P Mannion, C O’Callaghan, C Costello. Subs: D Rock for Costello (45), P Small for O’Callaghan (65), J Cooper for O’Sullivan (68), K McManamon for Mannion (68), E Murchan for McCaffrey (69), J McCarthy for Fenton (72).

CORK: M White; Thomas Clancy, K Flahive, J Loughrey; L Donovan, Tomás Clancy, M Taylor; I Maguire, K O’Driscoll; P Kerrigan, S White, R Deane; M Collins, B Hurley, L Connolly. Subs: M Hurley for Kerrigan (56), K O’Donovan for Loughrey (56), R O’Toole for S White (63), S Sherlock for Connolly (65), C Kiely for O’Donovan (66), J O’Rourke for Maguire (69).

REF: D Gough (Meath).