Bandwagon is picking up speed

Kerry 1-17 Derry 1-11: Kerry's bandwagon is starting to roll a little more menacingly now.

Yesterday, they comfortably dismissed the challenge of Derry in front of 35,457 spectators to reach next month's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football final against Mayo. It was the team's most convincing display this summer and too hot for their opponents to handle.

The damage was done in the period after half-time.

Having been subdued by Derry's best phase - in the second quarter - the Munster champions recovered strongly and in 20 minutes or so either side of the break outscored the dazed opposition by 10 points to nil.

Mickey Moran's team kept trying and got a fine fourth quarter out of Fergal Doherty and Patsy Bradley at centrefield plus a small dam-burst of scores in the closing minutes, but it only regraded the defeat from 11 points to six and, by then, Kerry had begun to make precautionary substitutions and to wind down what had been a heartening display for manager Jack O'Connor.

Headlining the cheering bulletins was the continued effervescence of Colm Cooper. The corner forward had been shadowed by a hamstring injury going into the match, but came through in one piece, despite a painful cramp with 15 minutes to go that for a moment looked as if it was the dreaded pull the whole county must have been fearing at least in the early stages.

Strangely, he was left on the field after that unnerving premonition, but was eventually withdrawn a short while later. With their footballing doyen Séamus Moynihan still injured, Kerry also had to cope with the loss of Darragh Ó Sé after little over 20 minutes, as he fell awkwardly to injure his ankle.

Still they coped, Eoin Brosnan going to centrefield, Declan O'Sullivan dropping back to centre forward and Michael Russell resuming the corner-forward position he'd lost when the team had been announced.

Russell's display was another reason for contentment. He looked more eager for action than in recent matches and combined at times stunningly well with Cooper to devise some wonderful scores.

Derry switched their main strike force, Paddy Bradley and Enda Muldoon, for the start and their Kerry markers, Michael McCarthy and Tom O'Sullivan, went with them.

The match's ultimate trend was very much on show in the early stages as Kerry raced to a 0-4 to 0-1 lead with Cooper already beginning to buzz and Declan O'Sullivan pressurising Seán Lockhart and getting involved in two moves that threatened a goal. But the exchanges were competitive and in the 16th minute the expected pattern was suddenly disrupted.

Derry's full forwards had as before packed into a nucleus within the opposing square, flying out to collect such ball as arrived.

For the most part, Kerry were relatively unbothered by this stratagem, but on this occasion Muldoon did well to win the incoming delivery and find a way past Marc Ó Sé. His finish was high class for a second goal in an All-Ireland semi-final, to go with the one scored against Galway three years ago.

Now, the Kerry backs began to experience difficulty with the high ball and looked vulnerable both in the air and on the bounce. Paddy Bradley sprang into life and kicked three points - one a free - on the trot.

This was the Ulster team's best stretch. Fired up by the possibilities, they worked hard and defended in numbers - 10 outfield players behind the ball at one count - but in a portent of what was to come, Kerry gathered themselves and rattled off four unanswered points before the break.

One score typified the growing adversity for Derry.

Fergal Doherty did well to steal broken possession from Tomás Ó Sé, but in moment of carelessness allowed William Kirby to intercept his offload and kick a point.

The slippery slope became a dark, deep ravine for Derry, trailing 1-4 to 0-8, on the restart.

Playing with brio and penetration, the Munster champions scored rhythmically. Brosnan, Tomás Ó Sé, Russell, an Ó Cinnéide free, and so on it went. The match was at the inquest stage 10 minutes after the break.

To underscore the sense of desperation Derry must have been feeling, they seemed to be taking players off with every score conceded.

Mickey Moran was criticised afterwards for the disruption to the team as four replacements arrived individually in little over 12 minutes. But from Derry's point of view, the match was in serious need of disruption.

Derry's manager will probably attract more criticism for the fact he has chosen to start the same team so frequently, despite just as frequently having to substitute the same players with the same replacements.

So far, it had worked, but Kerry were by far the best side Derry have faced since beginning their rehabilitation in the qualifiers three months ago.

Thirty-one minutes after his team's last score, Paul McFlynn kicked a point for Derry in the 58th minute. That trimmed the margin to six, 1-5 to 0-14, but Kerry were too far gone in their supremacy.

By now, the defence was in control, mopping up the wayward spoils of Derry's centrefield improvement, and goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy caught the eye with two noticeably composed catches of dropping ball in his square.

Cooper and Russell combined spectacularly for a point by the former in the 62nd minute and, four minutes later, Declan O'Sullivan got a run at Lockhart, who had followed him out the field, and scythed through the ragged cover to slot in a goal for a 1-17 to 1-6 lead.

In the closing minutes, Derry's determined push for respectability saw five points in succession fly over (or in the case of the final one, possibly wide) and Paddy Bradley could have trimmed the deficit even further had he used a goal chance more wisely at the death.

But, even allowing for the stark imperatives of a semi-final, that would have been unjust on Kerry.

KERRY: 1. D Murphy; 3. M McCarthy, 2. T O'Sullivan, 7. M Ó Sé; 4. A O'Mahony, 6. E Fitzmaurice, 5. T Ó Sé (0-2); 8. D Ó Sé (0-1), 9. W Kirby (0-1); 10. L Hassett, 11. E Brosnan (0-1), 12. P Galvin (0-1); 15. D O'Sullivan (1-0), 14. D Ó Cinnéide (0-2, 45 and free), 13. C Cooper (0-6, three frees). Subs: 17. MF Russell (0-2) for D Ó Sé (22 mins), 18. P Kelly (0-1) for Hassett (59 mins), 27. T Griffin for Kirby (64 mins), 19. J Crowley for Cooper (67 mins).

DERRY: 1. B Gillis; 2. K McGuckin, 3. N McCusker, 4. SM Lockhart; 5. F McEldowney, 6. P McFlynn (0-1), 7. P Kelly; 8. F Doherty (0-1), 9. Patsy Bradley; 10. J Donaghy, 11. J McBride, 12. C Moran; 13. J Bradley, 15. E Muldoon (1-1), 14. Paddy Bradley (0-6, four frees). Subs: 22. G O'Kane for McEldowney (37 mins), 26. G Donaghy for Moran (40 mins), 27. E Burke for J Bradley (42 mins), 23. C Gilligan (0-2) for J Donaghy (48 mins), 29. M Lynch for McBride (53 mins).

Referee: B White (Wexford).