Sport

Breeze pushes Cork clear

Munster Under-21 FC/Cork 0-17 Limerick 0-9: Cork's quest for a fourth consecutive Munster under-21 football championship title…

Fri Mar 09 2007 - 00:00

Munster Under-21 FC/Cork 0-17 Limerick 0-9:Cork's quest for a fourth consecutive Munster under-21 football championship title began with a workmanlike victory at Páirc Uí Rinn last night. They will play Waterford away in the semi-final.

Cork led by 0-9 to 0-1 at the end of a wind-assisted first half, during which Daniel Goulding and Colm O'Neill caused havoc for the over-worked Limerick defence.

Limerick actually started well, with captain Kieran O'Callaghan levelling with a fine point after six minutes, but faulty shooting spoiled some promising approach work.

Cork showed the way with Goulding and O'Neill sharing eight points, before captain Michael Shields popped up from full back to land a superb score just before the interval.

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Limerick made a promising start to the second half, scoring four unanswered points, three from full forward Seán Cronin, to cut the deficit to 0-9 to 0-5, and they were still only three points down entering the final 11 minutes.

Cork regrouped, however, and finished strongly with Goulding, who scored 0-10, ending any doubts with a couple of late points.

CORK: K O'Halloran; R Carey, M Shields (capt) (0-1), G O'Shea; S O'Donoghue, D Limrick, E Cadogan; F Lynch, C Keane (0-1); S McCarthy, C Callanan, P Kerrigan (0-1); C O'Neill (0-3), D Goulding (0-10, six frees), R Leahy. Subs: S Cahalane for Callanan (46 mins), F Gould (0-1) for Leahy (51 mins), D Kearney for Keane (57 mins), N Horgan for O'Shea (58 mins).

LIMERICK: T Enright; M Cahill, D Woods, S Garvey; L Martin, L O'Dwyer, R Browne (0-1); M Galvin, L Kavanagh; J Ryan, K O'Callaghan (capt) (0-3, two frees), G Collins (0-1); M Kelly (0-1), S Cronin (0-3), N Mulvihill. Subs: E Hogan for Mulvihill (46 mins), I Ryan for Kavanagh (50 mins), Kavanagh for Galvin inj (55 mins), T Gleeson for Browne inj (56 mins), M Boyce for Martin (58 mins).

Referee: P O'Sullivan (Kerry).

The Meehan brothers, Declan and Michael, have returned to the Galway squad along with defender Kieran Fitzgerald for Sunday's National League game against Kildare.

This is the first time the three have linked up with the county this year following the recent death of Mairéad Meehan, girlfriend of Kieran Fitzgerald and sister of the Caltra clubmen.