Setanta Cup Semi-final/Linfield 1 Cork City 0:The organisers might well breathe a sigh of relief that the competition's cross Border nature will be reflected in the line-up for this year's final, but Cork City's players must wonder this morning how they failed to capitalise on the strength of their second-half performance at Windsor Park to earn a repeat of last year's decider and a third crack in under 18 months at beating Drogheda United in a cup final.

The southerners generated a string of decent chances in a poor game that always seemed destined to be decided by a solitary goal, but were frustrated by poor finishing and a couple of fine saves from Linfield goalkeeper Alan Mannus.

Ultimately, though, they paid for their mistakes at the other end where Michael Devine's failure to deal with Jamie Mulgrew's cross from the right allowed Aidan O'Kane to tee up his sixth goal of the season from a tight angle as City players made despairing attempts to block down his shot.

The reward for the Irish League champions is a reunion of their own with Drogheda on Saturday week when they will be aiming to avenge last year's home defeat by Paul Doolin's side at the semi-final stages.

They will presumably have to play better than they did last night to do so, but with an Irish League and IFA Cup double likely to be completed back here on Saturday, the prospect of an outstanding treble should provide motivation, if it is required, for them to lift their game.

Having wrapped up the league title a couple of weekends ago, Linfield were able to rest the bulk of their senior players for Saturday's 1-0 defeat of Crusaders. Last night, they returned with David Jeffrey making nine changes to his starting line-up. Back came the likes of Alan Mannus, William Murphy and Paul McAreavey, with only Jim Ervin and Aidan O'Kane retaining their places.

Without the injured Peter Thompson, the home side lacked punch up front while Oran Kearney's inventiveness was also missed from midfield.

In their absence, Linfield's efforts to play through the City defence generally came to nothing. Ervin's repeated attempts to send Mulgrew or one of the two strikers clear into the area with floated balls over Dan Murray and Brian O'Callaghan proved unsuccessful while the Northerners fluffed a couple of close range chances from set-pieces.

City, though, generated few real chances of their own early on and when they did, usually on the break, their finishing was poor.

John O'Flynn certainly should have done much better after beating the offside trap to latch on to a fine Dan Murray ball forward, while the visiting side's only other serious opportunity during the opening half slipped past when Neal Horgan and Joe Gamble combined well down the right-hand side only for Denis Behan's first touch to badly let him down when he tried to control the midfielder's low ball towards the edge of the box. The moment it took Behan to recover allowed Ervin to make a challenge and the ball flew safely into the path Mannus.

There should have been a little more to City's attacking game, but Roy O'Donovan was suspended, while O'Flynn didn't look completely fit and was replaced early in the second half by Billy Woods.

Behan, to be fair however, found his range after the break, first forcing Mannus into a finger-tip save with a looping shot from 30 yards, then stretching the goalkeeper again with flicked header from close range.

On his 900th appearance for the Belfast club, William Murphy was struggling to cope with the 23-year-old's strong running and Mannus did well again with 19 minutes remaining after the striker had gotten between Pat McShane and Steven Douglas to shoot from just inside the area.

By this stage City were getting well on top. The home support must have feared for their side's long unbeaten record - 28 games - as Colin O'Brien's shot hit the crossbar and Jeffrey must have wondered how his side had so comprehensively surrendered the initiative.

McAreavey's set-pieces were now virtually the only source of danger to the Corkmen but Linfield almost made the most of one of them when Mark Dickson lost his marker and forced Michael Devine to deflect his shot wide.

A few minutes later, though, when Mulgrew's cross came curling in from the his left, the City goalkeeper didn't do nearly so well and O'Kane coolly picked his spot.

LINFIELD: Mannus; Ervin, Murphy (Douglas, 51 mins), Bailie, McShane; Dickson, Mulgrew, McAreavey, O'Kane; Ferguson, Stewart (Gault, half-time).

CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan (Murphy, 88 mins), O'Callaghan, Murray; Ryan; Gamble, O'Brien, Softic, Kearney; Behan, O'Flynn (Woods, 51 mins).

Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).