The 16th Man

Cork showed resilience and fortitude to fight to a one point win against Dublin in the All – Ireland senior football semi-final at Croke Park.
The Rebels trailed their opponents throughout the match until Donncha O’Connor slotted over in the 70th minute to give his side the lead and the win.
Dublin made the early running and Bernard Brogan’s goal inside 90 seconds was a shape of things to come for the rest of the first half.
The goal had Hill 16 and much of the near capacity 82,225 crowd in fine voice.
Niall Corkery’s searching ball caught full back Ray Carey in no man’s land, Brogan slipped in behind and finished with power and precision beyond Alan Quirke.
Cork responded with points from Daniel Goulding and Donncha O’Connor, however the Leesiders failed to capitalise on a series of good chances as their wides added up.
Dublin on the other hand seemed to score at ease, Phillip Mc Mahon popped up from corner back to give a lesson in shooting and the Brogan brothers followed suit with two points apiece, leaving Dublin with a five point lead on 18 minutes.
The Rebels continued adding to their growing number of wides but did split the posts with two frees from Goulding and a fine score from midfielder Aidan Walsh.
Michael Dara Macauley was one of the stand-out performers for the Dubs, he added another point before Bernard Brogan, without looking at the posts, scored a curling effort from under the shadow of the Hogan stand.
Bernard Brogan’s tally of 1-4 had helped Dublin to 1-8 to 0-07 lead at the break. Their performance had been built on a solid defence and hard work all over the pitch.
This ethos continued with Ross McConnell early in the second half, dogged determination won the midfielder possession before he cantered forward and scored from range.
Cork managed just one score in the first 15 minutes of the second half while another point from Bernard Brogan kept five in the difference.
In the 54th minute referee Maurice Deegan offered Cork a lifeline in the shape of a penalty after McConnell tackled substitute Colm O’Neill to the ground.
Donncha O’Connor stepped up to convert the spot kick in off the post. Both teams traded scores before Mc Connell was sent off for a high tackle on Noel O’Leary, O’Connor once again punished Mc Connell’s indiscipline, this time converting the resulting free.
There was still time before the final whistle for Derek Kavanagh to tap on another and for Bernard Brogan to score from range when Dublin really needed a goal to progress.
Teams and Scorers
Cork
A Quirke, R Carey, M Shields, J Miskella, N O’Leary, G Canty, P Kissane, A O’Connor, A Walsh (0-1), P Kerrigan (0-1), P O’Neill, P Kelly (0-2), D Goulding (0-4, 3f), C Sheehan, D O’Connor (1-5, 1-0 pen, 0-4f).
Subs
E Cadogan for Canty, N Murphy for A O’Connor, C O’Neill (0-1) for Sheehan, D Kavanagh (0-1) for Miskella, F Goold for O’Leary
Dublin
S Cluxton, M Fitzsimons, R O’Carroll, P McMahon (0-1), K Nolan, G Brennan, C O’Sullivan, R McConnell (0-1), MD McAuley (0-1), N Corkery, A Brogan (0-2), B Cullen (0-1), D Henry, E O’Gara, B Brogan (1-7, 0-1f).
Subs
B Cahill for O’Sullivan, P Flynn for Henry, E Fennell for Corkery, C Keaney (0-1, f) for O’Gara, D Bastick for O’Carroll
Referee
Maurice Deegan (Laois).

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