Cork homed in on a second double this decade as they eased past Mayo in yesterday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football semi-final to join the county's hurlers in next month's finals.

Trailing in behind them was a Mayo team which, if only definitively put away in the last minute, had looked beaten for most of the second half. Whereas there were alarming signs of inadequacy in the first quarter, Cork regrouped well and won with some style in the end. It was a heartening victory for Larry Tompkins and his selectors, because it showcased the merits of this Cork side: an ultimately sound defence, an under-rated centrefield and an improving attack where team captain Philip Clifford, scorer of 1-4, was a revelation in the right corner.

What was also evident was the quality which the team has displayed several times this year, an equanimity in the face of adversity and a refusal to panic. This stood them in particularly good stead in the first half.

In the opening quarter, Mayo's performance suggested that all the claims of improvement made for the team were reasonably well-founded. Up front, they started well with James Horan, fresh from his Connacht final triumph, turning Sean O hAilpin like a screw and slotting the opening point.

A minute later, Kieran McDonald, whose cameo in the Galway match had convinced many in Mayo that his day's of temperamental under-achieving were over, kicked a second and the Connacht champions were in business.

Scores were coming and the attack was moving well and with purpose. Cork have established valid claims to have the best defence in the country, but it was looking like the Maginot Line as Mayo rolled to a five-point lead and created enough chances to have built a larger advantage.

Then there was the attack, which had always been a less certain part of the Cork equation. It was in terrible difficulty as Mayo's backs for the most part squeezed their opponents for oxygen, let alone the space to engineer openings.

After a few minutes Gordon Morley was assigned the job of following Don Davis, Cork's roving full forward, and if he was struggling, Davis's deep runs and acute reading of the game wasn't kick-starting anything on the scoreboard.

At the end of the first quarter came a score emblematic of everything that was going wrong for Cork. Nicholas Murphy spilled possession - not for the first time - at centrefield and the ball ended up with Horan again putting pressure of O hAilpin and setting up Kenneth Mortimer on the inside for a simple point.

Then the match changed. O hAilp in, on his own admission, was being "roasted" and beginning to fear a call from the line. Instead, he was moved into the right corner where his game improved on Maurice Sheridan while Ronan McCarthy switched in to take more of a grip at full back.

The steadier base at the back began to pay dividends up front. Podsie O'Mahony kicked two points to cut the margin to three, 0-3 to 0-6. Even that advantage - for Mayo a worryingly poor reflection of their early dominance - evaporated in the 26th minute.

O'Mahony relieved pressure in the defence after tracking back and released Ciaran O'Sullivan, who made ground before slipping a good ball in to Joe Kavanagh. His kick was blocked, as was Mark O'Sullivan's follow-up, before Clifford slipped home the rebound.

The teams were level at halftime. On the face of it, this was bad news for Mayo who had enjoyed the benefit of the wind. Yet it could have been worse. In the 29th minute Kavanagh soloed through relatively unimpeded and was tempted into a shot which Peter Burke saved. Mark O'Sullivan fisted the rebound off the crossbar and Fergal Costello cleared.

By the start of the second half, the match had changed course. Cork's defence had taken a firm hold. The trumpeted improvement in Mayo's forward line was sounding subdued. In fairness to the two most cited examples, Horan and McDonald did their bit with three points apiece; but elsewhere it was the same old story.

Mortimer's new role as centre forward wasn't working out either and he was eventually substituted. More woundingly, Maurice Sheridan had a horror-day with his usually immaculate place-kicking and he was to finish with five wides - including frees and a 45 which he would normally flawlessly dispatch.

With the scoring-rate slowing, the defence began to spring a leak. Morley had been taken off at halftime and James Nallen was allocated the task of following Davis.

John Maughan admitted afterwards that the primary concern had been to get Pat Fallon into centrefield, where Murphy's fielding and the industry of Micheal O'Sullivan were beginning to undermine Mayo's presumed advantage in the sector. Nallen's more naturally deep-lying game seemed to suit the new task.

Davis was, however, cute enough to do little wandering at the start of the second half and Nallen's advantages in the loose became wholly aspirational as, marooned on the edge of his square, he watched play unfold.

Mayo's other corner back, Aidan Higgins, had survived the half-time cull despite having endured anxious moments on Mark O'Sullivan. He was to experience a waking nightmare after halftime as Cork pumped ball after ball into his corner and Clifford won virtually every single one.

With 15 minutes left Cork had established a three-point lead and looked likely to multiply it. In defence, Anthony Lynch was outstanding and a valid challenger to Clifford's Man of the Match status. McCarthy, although lucky to escape censure for a foul on Fallon, played a very intelligent role throughout the second half, reading play well and slowing it down when possible.

Their lead established, Cork flocked back behind the ball and took an even tighter grip on the game. Ciaran O'Sullivan's bolting runs up the field relieved pressure and created chances at the other end and Mayo ran out of answers.

This was emphasised at the very end. John Casey - who had replaced Mortimer and was giving yet another pale and ghostly impression of the forward he had been in the semi-final three years ago - got in a doomed run at the Cork goal.

He was dispossessed and Ciaran O'Sullivan emerged and put a long ball into the right corner where it was routinely won by Clifford. He slipped Higgins and passed in to substitute an Fionan Murray whose shot dribbled over the line to give him a second goal in successive matches.

It was an appropriate conclusion to a satisfactory performance.