All-Ireland SHC Semi-final replay: Cork 3-17; Wexford 2-7: After the exuberance of last week the pessimists had their day on Saturday. Cork, chastened by the close call of the drawn match, gave a more consistent performance whereas Wexford, as many feared, were unable to maintain the racy tempo of the first day.

All the negatives that had stacked up so ominously against the Leinster finalists duly collapsed on top of them. Cork obviously benefited from the experience of the first day. Furthermore the six-day break didn't appear to have been sufficient to revive Wexford and players looked off the pace during frequent power surges from a revitalised Cork.

The match began with a lively first quarter when hopes of a competitive fixture briefly flourished and at the end of which the sides were level. But already the signs weren't that promising.

Wexford's total was bolstered by the old familiar imbalance between goals and points whereas Cork's scoring had been more fluent and their attacks more menacing. Gone was the assurance with which the underdogs had unleashed a stream of dazzling points and in its place was hesitancy and what appeared like a lack of confidence that the heroics of six days previously could be repeated.

Where this leaves Wexford is another day's work. It could be said they aren't in a much more advanced position than two years ago after Tipperary doled out a replay thrashing in fairly similar circumstances. But that's excessively gloomy. At times the team has hurled well in excess of the standard set in 2001. Saturday merely illustrated the length of the road ahead if John Conran is to continue what has been overall an impressive first season's work.

Cork will be very happy with the events of the week.

The drawn match was a vivid diagnostic of the team's weaknesses and this time they produced an improved performance that still leaves plenty to work on in the four weeks before the All-Ireland final.

Manager Donal O'Grady extracted improved performances in a number of areas. As expected, Diarmuid O'Sullivan moved to full back, although curiously not from the throw-in, and he had a field day, albeit against an attack that posed only fractional menace.

Pat Mulcahy again looked more comfortable in the corner but Mitch Jordan was the only Wexford forward to attain anything like the form of the first match and a similar haul of 1-2 verified as much.

But the goals conceded had an element of good luck.

Jordan's sixth-minute finish was clinical but the possession came of a freakish ricochet. Ten minutes later Larry Murphy's pull on a ball teed up for him by Darren Stamp's well-judged strike and a neat side-foot by Rory Jacob was parried by Donal Cusack only for the ball to loop over his head into the net. At 2-1 to 0-4, this was the high-water mark of Wexford's challenge. But back to Cork's improvements.

Around the middle they clicked into their mobile, running game far earlier on this occasion. Mickey O'Connell, whose first sighting in the drawn match had been a solo through the middle in the 46th minute, was about his business early and his incisions were hurting.

Similarly, Ben O'Connor and Timmy McCarthy, who didn't get into high gear until the purple passage in the second half of the previous week, were running at their men from the off. Crucially for Wexford the areas where they needed improvement yielded none.

Doc O'Connor was back in trouble on Setanta Ó hAilpín. To be fair, all three of the lanky Cork corner forward's markers were in trouble, as he became a hub for the attack, winning ball and using it well. Declan Ruth couldn't do any better at centre back and was switched with Liam Dunne quite soon into the match.

By way of illustration, within a minute of Murphy's goal a lineball to O'Connor set the winger haring in on goal and his pass to Alan Browne was rewarded with an equalising goal.

The next few minutes decided the match. Setanta Ó hAilpín intervened to score what was surprisingly his only point of the afternoon and to set up O'Connell for another.

Another goal chance arose for Wexford. Had Michael Jacob converted his one-on-one challenge with Cusack maybe Cork might have been spooked and Wexford's spirits raised but the goalkeeper saved. It was the last chance the losers would have to take back the lead.

Their centrefield travails deteriorated after a good start by the veteran Larry O'Gorman while beside him Rory McCarthy, whose lightning strike had brought about the replay, was enduring a nightmare. One incident springs to mind. In the 25th minute he lost possession to Tom Kenny and O'Connor pointed.

It was puzzling the line didn't swap him and Adrian Fenlon who was having no more success on Seán Ó hAilpín than in the drawn match. When Fenlon was eventually returned to his more familiar environs he played a lot better.

A minute later Cork centre forward Niall McCarthy punched yet another hole in the half-back cover and laid off to his namesake Timmy, who finished for his team's second goal. Wexford were furious referee Aodan Mac Suibhne had failed to spot the first McCarthy dropping his hurl before launching the pass and to be fair it was the killer score.

Not that there's any evidence to suggest Cork would have won any less convincingly without the score. It was merely a symptom of the winners' growing superiority. There was a symmetry to what was happening. In the drawn match 12 minutes in the second half had put Cork in a winning position they failed to exploit. On Saturday that spell came earlier and the platform wasn't wasted. Between Murphy's goal and the 28th minute Wexford were outscored 2-4 to 0-1. There was no way back.

O'Grady afterwards referred to a nagging concern that Wexford might explode out of the blocks for the second half but there was no dynamite. The young Jacob brothers, who have made such a difference to the team this season, weren't able to find their form, while the seas ran dry for captain Paul Codd. He had a horror afternoon, including five wides - two 65s and a free being well within his normal range - was tried in four positions and eventually replaced.

With Codd out of the equation Larry Murphy was understandably unable to run the central attack on his own and Wexford slumped to a dismally low score, 1-10 below the tally they managed in the draw.

The only significant achievement had been the muzzling of Joe Deane by Darragh Ryan. Cork's top gun was silent from play until the 58th minute. Up to then Wexford had sort of kept pace with Cork without ever threatening the deficit. But Deane's point represented a quickening in the Munster champions' urgency.

They rattled off 1-4 with only a point in return.

Even Ryan finished badly as Deane took advantage of Setanta Ó hAilpín's surging run to register Cork's third goal. The Wexford full back should subsequently have been sent off for rapping Ó hAilpín's helmet with his hurl in irritation at some showboating on the award of a free.

So Cork are back in the All-Ireland final after an absence of four years and will be glad that the second match of the semi-final allowed them to establish their credentials as firmly as it did.

CORK: 1. D Cusack; 2. W Sherlock, 3. P Mulcahy, 4. D O'Sullivan; 5. T Kenny, 6. R Curran, 7. Seán Ó hAilpín; 8. J Gardiner (0-3, 1 65 and 2 frees), 9. M O'Connell (0-2); 10. B O'Connor (0-4), 11. N McCarthy, 12. T McCarthy (1-1); 13. Setanta Ó hAilpín (0-1); 14. J Deane (1-5, four frees), 15. A Browne (capt, 1-0). Subs: 22. J O'Connor for N McCarthy (60 mins), 20. K Murphy for Setanta Ó hAilpín (69 mins), 18. M Prendergast for Sherlock (71 mins), 19. D Barrett for Gardiner (73 mins).

WEXFORD: 1. D Fitzhenry; 2. D Guiney, 3. D Ryan, 4. D O'Connor; 5. D Stamp, 6. D Ruth, 7. L Dunne; 8. R McCarthy, 9. L O'Gorman; 10. A Fenlon (0-1), 11. L Murphy (1-0), 12. M Jacob (0-1); 13. M Jordan (1-2), 14. P Codd (capt. 0-3, all frees), 15. R Jacob. Subs: 22. T Mahon for McCarthy (half-time), 23. B Lambert for O'Gorman (41 mins), 24. C McGrath for Codd (50 mins).

Yellow cards - Cork: W Sherlock (27 mins). Wexford: D O'Connor (21 mins).

Referee: A Mac Suibhne (Dublin).