All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers – Kildare 1-21 Cork 1-13

Kildare defeated Cork by 1-21 to 1-13 in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Qualifiers on Saturday July 25th at Semple Stadium Thurles.

WATCH: Kildare boss Jason Ryan was very proud of his players they eliminated Cork http://t.co/mBCLu3fXul pic.twitter.com/3KRRzc4thq

— Sky Sports GAA (@SkySportsGAA) July 25, 2015

Kildare impress in dispatching Cork: Kildare football produced a shock of sorts when dumping Cork out of the f… http://t.co/jicO1oTQyc

— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) July 25, 2015

Listless Cork felled by Qualifier kings Kildare

By Brendan O’Brien, Semple Stadium for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Kildare 1-21 Cork 1-13

Kildare more than lived up to their reputation as the Qualifier kings with a comprehensive victory over a disappointingly flat Cork side in their All-Ireland qualifier Round 4A qualifier at Semple Stadium this evening. Time and again in recent seasons the Leinster county has resurrected their summer with a long and winding run through the back door. They will now once again see action in the month of August after confounding the majority of pre-match expectations and odds.

Kildare had been heavily beaten by Dublin in Leinster before righting the ship in the Qualifiers, first with a narrow win against Offaly and then with a comprehensive beating of Longford. Cork, of course, were seven days off a Munster final replay loss to Kerry. The hangover looked pronounced.

Cork could argue that nothing went right for them on the night between James Loughrey’s early black card, Alan O’Connor’s loss before half-time with suspected knee damage and Conor Dorman hitting the crossbar soon after the interval. Not to mention Kevin O’Driscoll’s straight red after 55 minutes.

That would be to gloss over a listlessness that made one wonder how this was the same group of players who had a Munster title snatched from their grasp by Kerry. To think, too, that Kildare probably should have lost their summer opener to Laois. Such is the beauty, sometimes terrible, of the qualifiers.

The sides chaperoned each other closely through the first 25 minutes or so with the scores standing at four points apiece before Kildare went on the rampage to claim eight of the next nine white flags before the half-time whistle. Dorman hitting the crossbar with a palmed effort after 37 minutes was compounded shortly after when Niall Kelly – superb all evening – finished off a team move at the far end with a lovely effort to the net and suddenly Kildare led by seven.

Cork fell away thereafter and the gap had grown to a dozen points before Colm O’Neill caught the Kildare defence napping when sending a free low into the semi-guarded net with 13 minutes to go. Points soon after from Colm O’Neill and Brian Hurley gave the hint of it being an unlikely comeback.

It wasn’t. Kildare steadied and saw out the remainder of this comfortably enough despite losing Emmet Bolton to a late red card.

Scorers for Kildare: N Kelly (1-3); E O’Flaherty (0-5 frees); P Fogarty (0-3, 1 free); A Smith and P Cribbin (0-2); M Donnellan (0-2 frees); O Lyons, E Doyle, P O’Neill, C McNally (all 0-1).

Scorers for Cork: C O’Neill (1-4, 1-2 frees): D O’Connor (0-5, 4 frees); B O’Driscoll, M Collins, P Kerrigan and B Hurley (all 0-1).

Kildare: M Donnellan; O Lyons, C Fitzpatrick, M O’Grady; K Mufrnaghan, E Doyle, E Bolton; T Moolick, P Cribbin; C McNally, E O’Flaherty, P O’Neill; N Kelly, A Smith, E Callaghan
Subs: P Fogarty for Callaghan (inj, 35+4); P Kelly for O’Grady (38); M Sherry for O’Flaherty (black card, 51); M Conway for McNally (57); F Conway for Kelly (64); G Whyte for Smith (71).

Cork: K O’Halloran; S Cronin, J O’Sullivan, M Shields; C Dorman, J Loughrey, B O’Driscoll; A O’Connor, E Cadogan; C O’Driscoll, M Collins, K O’Driscoll; C O’Neill, D O’Connor, P Kerrigan
Subs: B O’Driscoll for Loughrey, black card (12); F Goold for O’Connor (inj, 20); B Hurley for C O’Driscoll (HT); T Clancy for Cronin (43); J O’Rourke for Dorman (48); D Og Hodnett for O’Sullivan (66).

Referee: M Duffy (Sligo)

Report: Inspired @KildareGAA pick @OfficialCorkGAA apart to seal quarter-final place: http://t.co/086HuG2V4n pic.twitter.com/jNg0rymCRQ

— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 25, 2015

Kildare stun Cork at Semple Stadium to roar into quarter-finals http://t.co/EVOQmGkv42 pic.twitter.com/JLtwcA4fVt

— Irish Times Sport (@IrishTimesSport) July 25, 2015

Preview: All-Ireland SFC Round 4A – @OfficialCorkGAA v @KildareGAA, Seemple Stadium, Thurles, 7pm, Saturday: http://t.co/TLylltiw3f

— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 24, 2015

Team News

Cork Senior Football to play Kildare

1. Ken O’Halloran (Bishopstown)
2. Michael Shields (St. Finbarr’s)
3. Jamie O’Sullivan (Bishopstown)
4. James Loughrey (Mallow)
5. Stephen Cronin (Nemo Rangers)
6. Brian O’Driscoll (Tadhg MacCarthaigh)
7. Barry O’Driscoll (Nemo Rangers)
8. Alan O’Connor (St. Colum’s)
9. Eoin Cadogan (Douglas)
10. Colm O’Driscoll (Tadhg MacCarthaigh)
11. Mark Collins (Castlehaven)
12. Kevin O’Driscoll (Tadhg MacCarthaigh)
13. Colm O’Neill (Ballyclough)
14. Paul Kerrigan (Nemo Rangers)
15. Donncha O’Connor (Ballydesmond)

Subs:
16. Paddy O’Shea (St. Vincent’s)
17. Tomás Clancy (Fermoy)
18. Noel Galvin (Ballincollig)
19. Conor Dorman (Bishopstown)
20. Ian Maguire (St. Finbarr’s)
21. Fintan Goold (Macroom)
22. Brian Hurley (Castlehaven)
23. Daniel Goulding (Éire Óg)
24. Donal Óg Hodnett (O’Donovan Rossa)
25. John Hayes (Carbery Rangers)
26. John O’Rourke (Carbery Rangers)

Note: Due to injury Tom Clancy (Clonakilty) and Patrick Kelly (Ballincollig) were not considered for selection for this game.

How they got here

CORK
Cork1-20 Clare 1-8 (Munster semi-final)
Kerry 2-15 Cork 3-12 (Munster final) Draw
Kerry 1-11 Cork 1-6 (Munster final) Replay

KILDARE
Kildare 0-16 Laois 0-16 (Leinster quarter-final)
Kildare 3-18 Laois 1-11 (Leinster quarter-final) Replay
Dublin 5-18 Kildare 0-14 (Leinster semi-final)
Kildare 1-15 Offaly 1-13 (Round 2 qualifier)
Kildare 2-24 Longford 0-11 (Round 3 (qualifier)

This will be only the fifth clash between Cork and Kildare in championship history, with previous results as follows:
2012: Cork 2-19 Kildare 0-12 (All-Ireland quarter-final)
2008: Cork 2-11 Kildare 1-11 (All-Ireland quarter-final)
1956: Cork 0-9 Kildare 0-5 (All-Ireland semi-final)
1928: Kildare 3-7 Cork 0-2 (All-Ireland semi-final)

Cork are attempting to qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the 12th time, having missed out on three occasions (2001- 2003-2004) since the new championship system was introduced in 2001. A win would see them reach the last eight for the 11th successive year.

Kildare are bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the sixth time, having previously got there in 2008-2009-2010-2011-2012).