Cork close door on Antrim

Cork 1-24 Antrim 1-7:ANTRIM'S HIGH hopes of another season in the top grade of the NHL were cruelly dismissed by Cork at Casement Park yesterday.

Cork stormed to victory with a constant stream of scores during the second half when they had the wind in their backs. Only a point separated the sides at the interval, 0-7 to 1-5, but Antrim never looked like building on their 34th-minute goal from Liam Watson.

Scores were scarce in the opening stages with Cork leading by just 0-3 to 0-2 after 19 minutes. After early nerves settled, Antrim began to hurl and looked likely to push the visitors to the limits.

However, the home side didn't score again until the 29th minute by which stage Cork had surged into a 0-7 to 0-2 lead. During the closing seven minutes of the first half, the home side outscored the opposition by 1-3 to 0-2 but that was as good as it got.

The second half was a series of points, polished off with a late goal, from Cork as the winners rifled over 15 points during the closing 36 minutes and Brian Corry hammered in a goal, off an upright, four minutes from time.

CORK: M Coleman; S O'Neill, D O'Sullivan, S Murphy; E Cadogan, J Gardiner (0-3, two frees, one 65), K McGann; T Kenny (0-2), K Hackett (0-1); K Murphy, B Corry (1-0), T McCarthy (0-1); L Desmond (0-1), K Canty (0-5), P Cronin (0-6, all frees). Subs: B. O'Connor (0-3, one free) for Hartnett (half-time), C Naughton (0-2) for K Murphy (52), B Murphy for McGann (58 mins), F Leary for McCarthy (60 mins).

ANTRIM: R McGarry; A Graffin, N McGarry, S Delargy; C Herron, J Campbell, M Cambridge; K McKeegan (0-2, one free), S McCrory; P McGill (0-1), C Donnelly, K Stewart (0-1); P Richmond, L Watson (1-1, 1-0 free), B Quinn (0-1). Subs: P Shiels (0-1) for Quinn (44 mins), E McCloskey for Stewart (65 mins), S McNaughton for Donnelly (65 mins).

Referee: T Stapleton (Laois).