All-Ireland SHC quarter-final
Dublin 0-21 Cork 0-26
ILLNESS and a Saturday lunchtime throw-in time were factors in an All-Ireland quarter-final described as “dead” and “devoid of energy” by Pat Ryan.
The Cork chief characterised his side’s performance as “sloppy” but was delighted to record a fourth consecutive Championship win for the first time since 2006. Their prize is a semi-final against Limerick on Sunday, July 7.
They held onto their clean sheet under a late barrage of Dublin shots. They certainly needed it after finishing without a goal for the first time all year.
“It’s a huge disappointment,” said Ryan of the lack of green flags. “The one or two early would have given us a launchpad to go forward.
“We were a bit sloppy around the place. We probably made one or two wrong decisions when they were coming at us with puck-outs and just moving the ball. That’s something we’ll work on.
“We had a small bit of sickness going around the squad, which didn’t help. We’ll try to get fellas right and hopefully be ready to go in two weeks’ time.”
With Robert Downey laid low, Ciarán Joyce provided a ready-made centre-back replacement. As against Offaly, full-forward Alan Connolly got no shot off but Ryan revealed he was among those recovering from illness.
“Alan’s been one of those lads that’s been under a bit of a cloud sickness-wise. Probably shouldn’t have played him against Offaly last week.
“Just wanted to get him over that, he probably hadn’t trained for the two weeks prior to the Offaly game.
“He was still dangerous but Eoghan O’Donnell’s a very good player. He took minding and that makes space for other fellas.”
Patrick Horgan struck 0-10 to equal TJ Reid as the Championship’s all-time top scorer on 699 points but his team didn’t register after his final white flag in the 66th minute.
Ronan Hayes, Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing (twice), and Donal Burke couldn’t conjure up a late goal, while the impressive Declan Dalton was denied a screamer by a flying Seán Brennan save at the other end.
On top of those missed chances, the teams shared 29 wides (Dublin 16, Cork 13) as Micheál Donohoe’s men converted less than 50 per cent of their shots.
The 1.15pm start was controversial for such a high-profile match, even before the late attempt to switch the double-header to Sunday. Ryan felt it was hard for players to perform to their best in the circumstances.
“It was a bit dead. That was the same for both of us, with wides and stuff like that.
“It’s very hard to have a really high-standard match at quarter past one on a Saturday and that’s what we saw.
“It was devoid of energy all over the place.”
Cork never trailed after a Horgan brace in the 15th minute. They led 0-15 to 0-10 at half-time and tagged on the first four points of the second half. Dublin’s response arrived too late.
“The shot count was 43 to 41. In every aspect of the game, we matched them. It was just our execution,” said Donohoe.
When asked if he’ll continue to guide Dublin forward, he replied: “That’s the plan anyway.”
Dublin S Brennan; P Smyth, E O’Donnell, J Bellew; C Crummey (0-3), C Donohoe, D Gray; C Burke (0-4), M Grogan; B Hayes (0-2), D Burke (0-3, 0-1 free), D Power (0-1); D Sutcliffe, S Currie (0-7, 0-4 frees), P Crummey.
Subs R Hayes for P Crummey (44-70+4, temporary); P Doyle (0-1) for Gray (48); D Ó Dúlaing for Grogan (54); J Madden for Donohoe (59); F Whiteley for B Hayes (64)
Cork P Collins; N O’Leary, S O’Donoghue, E Downey; T O’Mahony, C Joyce, M Coleman; L Meade (0-1), D Fitzgibbon (0-2); D Dalton (0-6, 0-3 frees), S Barrett (0-2), S Harnedy (0-2); P Horgan (0-10, 0-7 frees), A Connolly, B Hayes (0-1).
Subs S Kingston for Harnedy (49); T O’Connell for Meade (49); G Millerick for Fitzgibbon (59); R O’Flynn (0-2) for Hayes (61); C Lehane for Connolly (68).
Referee: M Kennedy (Tipperary).
