Cork goals break Queen's hearts

The ability of Cork Institute to score goals against the run of play was a feature of this tie at The Dub in Belfast yesterday with the visitors easing to a comfortable victory over underdogs Queen's University.

But it wasn't as easy as the margin of eight points might suggest. Queen's, particularly in the first half when they had a stormforce wind in their backs, matched anything that the winners could offer and in midfielder Paul McCormack from Armagh they had one of the stars of the game.

However, every time Queen's looked like pulling away, the Cork side hit back with killer goals. After eight minutes Queen's led by 1-2 to 0-0 but right from the puck-out following Reamann Kennedy's goal, Cork stormed upfield for William Deasy to snatch their first goal.

That was the pattern of play throughout the first half. Queen's stretched their lead to 1-4 to 1-0 after 11 minutes and in the 12th Pat Mulcahy set up Stephen O'Sullivan for another Cork goal. Five minutes later Queen's led by 1-7 to 2-1 and within 60 seconds Cork hit the net again - Gavan McCarthy was the scorer this time following a 65 from Pat Sexton.

By half-time Cork had eased into a 3-3 to 1-8 lead but two points in the opening four minutes of the second half restored Queen's advantage. It was a dying kick, however, because the visitors then fired over nine points without reply between the 35th and 56th minutes. A feature of the winners' scoring was that all but one point came from play.

Cork IT: S Barry; G Breen, D Fahy, M O'Brien; R Curran, P Sexton, J Hughes (0-1); J O'Donovan, P Mulcahy (0-3); R O'Donovan, A O'Connor (0-2), G McCarthy (1-1); W Deasy (1-1), D Gardiner (0-1), S O'Sullivan (1-3). Subs: J Murphy for O'Donovan (40 mins), D O'Brien for Gardiner (55 mins), G Coleman for Breen (56 mins).

Queen's University: F Murray; C Crawford, G Brunton, C Clarke; G Black, C Hamill, P Kelly (0-1); P McCormack (0-4), C Trainor; E Trainor (0-1), J McIntosh (0-2), P McGrattan; C O'Connell, R Kennedy (1-1), A McCormack (0-1). Subs: Patrick Kelly for McGrattan (33 mins), T McGilligan for Paul Kelly (44 mins).

Referee: G Devlin (Armagh).