AFTER an uneventful pair of semi finals at Croke Park yesterday, before a crowd of 20,097, the GAA will have a familiar pairing on show in this year's National Football League final on May 5th.

For the fourth time in the last five years, Donegal and Derry will contest a major occasion. It will be a repeat of last year's League final, won by Derry, and the Ulster finals of 1992 and '93, shared by the counties en route to heir respective All Ireland triumphs.

"Boring, boring," was the tongue in cheek response of Derry's star turn, right corner forward Joe Brolly. "It would be nice to be facing Cork for a change."

Broly burned off the Mayo challenge at the start of the second half of the second semi final. Taking advantage of a slip in the opposition defence, he ran through to crack home the decisive goal with his less favoured right foot in a 1-12 to 0-7 victory.

"That's Joe Brolly for you, said veteran defender Tony Scullion. "Only Joe could score a goal like that, and with his wrong foot as well."

North west rivals Donegal reached their third League final in four years with a late victory over Cork, 0-10 to 0-9. Having wasted a rake of chances in the second half, the northerners had to endure the sight of Cork creeping level at the end of the hour.

The denouement was as dramatic as it was out of character for Donegal John Ban Gallagher struck over the winning point with a decisive kick and didn't once look around to see if there was anyone close at hand to whom he could dispose of the responsibility with a hand pass.

Full forward Tony Boyle again to the fore with half his team's 10 points was in no doubt where Donegal's extra resources came from in the closing minutes of yesterday's game. "It was our fitness. If you had seen us running those hills in the last few weeks you'd understand how we kept going in such tough conditions."

Donegal manager PJ McGowan was satisfied but hinted at the relief his team must have felt. There would have been much soul searching over the failure to win a match which they controlled for much of the afternoon.

"Overall, though, it was a good team performance in difficult conditions. We dominated the second half and I thought we should have had the game sown up but at feast we continued to battle and that is encouraging."

The only cloud on the winners horizon was an injury to wing back Martin Shovlin who had to leave the field with a damaged shoulder. This comes on top of other injuries to experienced players such as Declan Bonner and James McHugh.

"We had plenty of chances in the first hall, but didn't take them," was the economical reaction of Cork manager Billy Morgan. Colin Corkery's last minute free had brought Cork level but it would have been unjust to Donegal had they been required to replay the semi final.

Looking forward to the final, Derry corner back Tony Scullion, who captained the county to last year's League victory, said "Matches between ourselves and Donegal are always close, and I don't expect it to be any different this year. On today's performance, we did the job that was asked of us and you can't complain about an eight point winning margin."

"The best way to prepare for the Ulster campaign is with hard championship like matches, and that's what we are going to get," was the reaction of current captain Henry Downey who captained the county to the 1992 League title.

In the Mayo dressing room, there was disappointment but an acceptance that losing three first choice players before the throw in had created an impossible situation for the Division Three winners who had surprisingly reached the penultimate stage of the competition.

In the event, they struggled for most of the match with the exception of a four point burst in the minutes before half time which sent them in at the interval with hope intact.

"Joe Brolly's goal finished us, really" said midfielder David Brady "but the best thing we can do is learn from the experience and get our minds focused on the Connacht championship."