Sport

Cork move closer to third title in a row

Women's Football All-Ireland Semi-final: Cork 4-14 Laois 0-6 Cork moved within 60 minutes of claiming the county's third All…

Mon Aug 27 2007 - 01:00

Women's Football All-Ireland Semi-final: Cork 4-14 Laois 0-6Cork moved within 60 minutes of claiming the county's third All-Ireland title in a row on Saturday.

Laois's Eimear Fitzpatrick blasted just over in the opening minute and two minutes later Cork's Ciara Walsh cleared off the line from Tracey Lawlor's flick. Briege Corkery got Cork off the mark on nine minutes before Deirdre O'Reilly netted and two minutes later captain Valeria Mulcahy fisted to the net for a nine-point lead.

Laois maintained that gap to the interval (2-7 to 0-4) but Cork scored 2-1 within minutes of the restart. Laura McMahon got the first goal with Mulcahy landing the other goal.

Meanwhile, Wexford survived missing two second-half penalties to deny Tipperary, 2-15 to 2-12, at Portlaoise on Saturday and book a place in the All-Ireland IFC final.

READ MORE

CORK:E Harte; C Walsh, A Walsh, Rena Buckley; L Barrett, B Stack, B Corkery (0-2); J Murphy (0-3, frees), N Kelly; G O'Flynn, L McMahon (1-0), N Cleary (0-3); V Mulcahy (2-2), M O'Connor (0-2), D O'Reilly (1-0). Subs: A Murphy (0-2) for N Kelly (half-time); Rhona Buckley for O'Flynn (45 mins); M Kelly for Mulcahy (55 mins).

LAOIS:B Deegan; L Hyland, L Muckian, E McEvoy; A Casey, P Fogarty, A Quigley; M Casey, K O'Reilly (0-1, 45); Martha Kirwan (0-1), N Kirwan, T Lawlor (0-3); G O'Connor, Mary Kirwan, E Fitzpatrick (0-1). Subs: M O'Grady for Quigley (39 mins); A Moore for Casey (39 mins); C Delaney for O'Connor (52 mins).

Referee:D Corcoran (Mayo).