Sport

Cork see off late Armagh surge to reach another final

Under-21 Football All-Ireland Semi-finals: Cork 0-13, Armagh 0-12 Cork became the first team since Dublin (2002 and '03) to …

Mon Apr 23 2007 - 01:00

Under-21 Football All-Ireland Semi-finals: Cork 0-13, Armagh 0-12Cork became the first team since Dublin (2002 and '03) to reach back-to-back All-Ireland under-21 finals when they held off a determined Armagh side at Portlaoise yesterday.

Beaten by Mayo in last year's decider - having seen off Laois in the semi-final - the Munster champions will now meet Laois in this year's decider in two weeks' time.

Cork played with the aid of a strong breeze in the opening half and, with man of the match Fintan Gould in fine form in the middle of the park, their forwards received a plentiful supply of ball and looked very sharp. Points from Fiachra Lynch and Daniel Goulding saw the rebels lead 0-4 to 0-1 after 15 minutes. The second quarter saw Armagh improve, scoring points from Kevin O'Rourke John Hanratty and Stefan Forker.

Cork finished the half with points from Daniel Goulding and Gould, Armagh replied with a point from John Hanratty, but the Munster side finished the half with a fisted point from Colm O'Neill to leave Cork leading by 0-11 to 0-5 at the interval.

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The second half produced some excellent football and, despite some fierce tackling by both sets of defenders, the referee only produced two yellow cards.

When Gould added Cork's 12th point a minute into the half it looked as though they would stroll it.

Armagh finally came to life and for the closing 25 minutes when they were well in control. They scored six unanswered points after which Cork were hanging on to a two-point advantage.

Armagh then scored a point from Forker, but Goulding got Cork's second point of the half two minutes from time. A free in for the Ulster team by Forker again cut the deficit to a point before the final whistle brought relief to Cork.

CORK:K O'Halloran; R Carey, M Sields, G O'Shea; S O'Donoghue, D Limerick, E Cadogan; F Gould (0-3), A O'Sullivan (0-1); F Lynch (0-3), C Keane, P Kerrigan; C O'Neill (0-2), D Goulding (0-4), R Leahy. Subs: K Harrington for G O'Shea, S Cahalane for R Leahy.

ARMAGH:P Rogers; K Dyas, B Donaghy, M Ferris; P Kernan, K Toner, T McClelland; J Lavery (0-1), P Courtney (0-1); S Forker (0-4), D McKenna, C Vernon (0-1); K O'Rourke (0-2), J Hanratty (0-2), G O'Neill (0-1). Subs: S Clarke for J Hanratty.

Referee:P McGovern (Galway).