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Man mountains from Cork end Monaghan's All-Ireland U21 bid

Cork celebrate as the Monaghan players face the reality of defeat in Saturday's All-Ireland U21 FC semi-final at Tullamore&nbsp;<br />Picture by Sportsfile &nbsp;
Cork celebrate as the Monaghan players face the reality of defeat in Saturday's All-Ireland U21 FC semi-final at Tullamore 
Picture by Sportsfile  
Cork celebrate as the Monaghan players face the reality of defeat in Saturday's All-Ireland U21 FC semi-final at Tullamore 
Picture by Sportsfile  

All-Ireland U21 Football Championship semi-final: Cork 2-15 Monaghan 1-16

THE man mountains from Cork remain on course for a 12th All-Ireland U21 title after ending Monaghan’s dreams of reaching the summit for the first time in Tullamore on Saturday evening.

As the sun settled behind the clouds that hung over O’Connor Park, the light also faded from a Farney challenge that at one stage promised so much before the Rebels took a vice-like grip on an absorbing, entertaining game.

When Donal Meegan’s left boot put Monaghan two points up with 17 minutes gone, all the momentum was with the Ulster champions. Even after conceding a goal to Cork senior star Peter Kelleher four minutes earlier, Monaghan hit back within a minute, Barry McGinn rifling to the net - the highlight of a virtuoso first-half performance from the Doohamlet man.

Yet, in the eight minutes between Meegan’s strike and the Farney’s next score from Conor McCarthy, Cork scored 1-3 to take a lead they would never relinquish. After struggling to break down Monaghan’s blanket defence early on, the Rebels started to get some joy out of direct balls into the twin towers, Kelleher and Brian Coakley, with Ryan Harkin, Sean O’Donoghue and the dangerous Sean Powter feeding off them superbly.

“We had seen them on videos and knew the way they set up,” said victorious Cork boss Sean Hayes.

“We were kind of expecting that and we tried to build ourselves so that we could face into that, and I think it worked to a degree.”

Monaghan manager Ciaran McBride acknowledged that the Rebels’ sheer size had been key: “Size made a big difference today,” said the former Tyrone player.

“We were outsized in maybe seven, eight, nine areas of the pitch and when you’re playing against a running team that also has size, that’s very difficult. I thought the lads challenged them well but Cork got a grip of the game and it was very hard to wrestle it off them.”

For the first quarter of an hour though, it was the Farney men who played with the swagger of a team high on confidence after sending defending All-Ireland champions Tyrone packing last time out.

McGinn - who ended the first-half with 1-5 - scored Monaghan’s first two points, the second coming after a move that started with full-back Mikey Murnaghan and also involved Fearghal McMahon and Ryan McAnespie.

Coakley served notice of his ability when he sold Murnaghan a dummy before stroking the ball over with his left. The classy O’Donoghue added another from range a minute later to put Cork 0-3 to 0-2 ahead.

McMahon and a McGinn free temporarily restored Monaghan’s lead but they were rocked back on their heels after 13 minutes when Kelleher stroked the ball past goalkeeper Conor Forde after a burst forward from Powter.

Lesser teams would have wilted, but the Farney men went straight up the other end and bagged a major of their own, James Mealiff playing the ball to McGinn on the right and he made no mistake, finding the top corner of the Cork net.

Meegan soon put them into a two point lead, and wing-back Niall Rooney’s diving block to deny O’Donoghue brought the sizeable Monaghan support to their feet in a chorus of whoops and cheers.

The dream was alive but, sadly for the Ulster kingpins, that was as good as it got. A goal and a point from Harkin, either side of another Coakley score, put the Rebels 2-6 to 1-5 in front, but Monaghan weren’t done yet as they registered the last three scores of the half through McMahon and two from McGinn to go in just a point behind.

After the break though, it was the third man in Cork’s fearsome full-forward line - Michael Hurley - who took centre stage. The Castlehaven man added two points from play to his one in the first half, and won free after free as Farney captain Kevin Loughran struggled to deal with his pace.

Every time Monaghan looked to be hauling themselves back into the game, Cork would just tip away at the scoreboard to keep their Ulster rivals at arm’s length. Substitute Donal O’Toole scored the best point of the day after 43 minutes when, under pressure around the 45 metre line, he lashed an unerring shot over the bar.

Even after Coakley was black-carded for an off-the-ball coming together with Mealiff, Cork’s strength in depth was evident, as the Carrigaline forward’s replacement Stephen Sherlock soon announced his arrival with a beautiful score from the left.

Yet, despite appearing to be in control, they just couldn’t shake off the Monaghan challenge and, with eight minutes left on the clock, only two points separated the counties.

With the game in the balance though, O’Donoghue and Powter stepped up to the plate with crucial points. An injury-time score from Ryan McAnespie kept Monaghan’s hopes alive- two again the difference - but they just couldn’t bridge that gap as the young Rebels sealed a final date with Mayo on April 30.

“It’s great for Cork to be in a final, it’s definitely great for this team,” added Hayes.

“We’ve been there or thereabouts in the last few years and a lot of these guys were involved, so it’s a huge achievement to get to the final.”

Eight different men in red got on to the scoresheet by the final whistle, and it was Cork’s efficiency in front of the posts which ultimately proved the difference according to a disappointed McBride.

“Cork were very economical,” said the Monaghan boss.

“Their shot selection was superb, you can’t take it away from them. At the end of the day they had to knock the ball over the bar and there wasn’t a score from 14 yards - everything was a fair distance out.

“It’s very disappointing. I don’t think we played to our potential. We just could never close the gap, we could never get back on even terms again. It’s very hard to take, we’re very sore.”

MATCH STATS


Cork: A Casey; M McSweeney, J Mullins, D Quinn; K Flahive, S Cronin, K Histon; S White, S O’Leary; S O’Donoghue (0-4), S Powter (0-3), R Harkin (1-1); B Coakley (0-2), P Kelleher (1-0), M Hurley (0-3); Subs: E Lavers for S O’Leary (HT), R O’Toole (0-1) for D Quinn (40), D O’Duinnin for R Harkin (55), C Dorgan for S Powter (61); Black card: S Sherlock (0-1) replaced B Coakley (44); Yellow cards: D Quinn (11), J Mullins (60).


Monaghan: C Forde (0-1, free); B Kerr, M Murnaghan, K Loughran; D Ward (0-1), J Mealiff, N Rooney; N Loughman, A Lynch; R McAnespie (0-1), B McGinn (1-6, 0-4 frees), D Meegan (0-1); A Treanor, C McCarthy (0-3, 0-1 free), F McMahon (0-3); Subs: F Maguire for A Treanor (17), A Curran for A Lynch (35), B McBennett for F McMahon (39).


Referee: J Hickey (Carlow)