TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship: Cork 2-12 Donegal 1-10
DONEGAL will hope Cork can do them a favour and defeat Waterford in the final group game this weekend after the Ulster side lost to the Rebelettes 2-12 to 1-10 in the All-Ireland Senior Championship at Clane on Sunday.
Cork laid the foundations for this victory in the first half with Donegal well off the pace. They trailed 2-9 to 1-2 at the break and although they put in an improved second half performance outscoring their opponents 0-8 to 0-3 the gap was just too much to bridge.
The start was frantic with Libby Coppinger pointing inside the first minute and that was followed with the game’s opening goal from the in-from Orla Finn. However, Donegal’s response was immediate and Yvonne Bonner found the back of the net with barely two minutes gone.
Cork were breaking through the Donegal defence with ease and they tagged on 1-6 without reply to open up a 2-7 to 1-0 lead by the 22nd minute with Ciara O’Sullivan, Laura O’Mahony and Aine O’Sullivan pointing before Finn’s 12th minute goal and she added another point in between two from Doireann O’Sullivan, including one free.
Geraldine McLaughlin and Karen Guthrie, who returned to the starting line-up, interrupted Cork’s momentum momentarily with two points but they were cancelled out by Sarah Leahy and Ciara O’Sullivan as Cork took in a commanding 10 points half-time lead.
Donegal emerged for the restart and hit the ground running with three points, all from frees, courtesy of Guthrie (0-2) and McLaughlin. The former landed another two converted frees and with another two points, from Guthrie and captain Niamh McLaughlin, the gap was back to four, 2-10 to 1-9, with seven minutes remaining. Cork then lost Meabh Cahalane to the sin bin to see out the remainder of the game with 14 and Geraldine McLaughlin’s fifth point of the day left a goal between them, 2-10 to 1-10, and a nervy final five minutes for Cork.
Donegal themselves finished with 14 when Nicole McLaughlin was sin-binned while Doireann O’Sullivan added a brace late on to ensure Cork held on for victory.
Donegal must now wait for the outcome of the Cork v Waterford game at the weekend to see if they go through to the quarter-finals.
