O'Shea goals help Cork to cruise through

GAELIC GAMES/ALL-IRELAND LADIES SFC SEMI-FINAL/Cork 4-10 Laois 1-6:CAPTAIN AMY O'Shea scored a hat-trick of second-half goals against Laois on Saturday as Cork cruised into the All-Ireland final. O'Shea struck a killer brace within a minute shortly after half-time, to knock the stuffing out of a Laois side that had been level at the break on 1-3 each.

The scoreline could have been much worse from a Laois perspective but for goalkeeper Ciamh Dollard, who saved two penalties, one in each half, before denying Nollaig Cleary with a point-blank save towards the end.

Cork fancied themselves to come through and set up a final meeting with Monaghan or Kerry on September 25th at Croke Park but they had to recover from a sluggish start as Laois led 1-3 to 0-0 after 12 minutes. But the Leinster champions would not score again before half-time and they were outscored by 0-3 to 3-7 in the second half. Now the former champions are just 60 minutes away from winning the Brendan Martin Cup for the sixth time in seven seasons.

Cork were rocked in the third minute when goalkeeper Elaine Harte allowed a speculative long-range effort from Laois forward Martina Dunne through her grasp and into the net.

Scores from Tracey Lawlor (two frees) and Dunne sent Laois into a six-point lead before player of the match and midfielder Juliet Murphy opened Cork’s account with a 16th-minute free. And Cork were level by the 29th minute when full forward Rhona Ní Bhuachalla crashed a shot to the top corner.

Cork could have gone in ahead at half-time but after a foul on Ní Bhuachalla, the normally lethal Valerie Mulcahy saw her penalty saved by Dollard. In a remarkable sequence of events, Mulcahy missed the follow-up, while O’Shea was also off-target as the Laois goal led a charmed existence.

Ní Bhuachalla missed another decent chance early in the second half before O’Shea scored two goals in the 34th minute of actual playing time.

O’Shea completed her hat-trick in the 48th minute before Dollard stopped a Ní Bhuachalla penalty in the 61st minute, after the goalkeeper had fouled marauding wing back Briege Corkery.

There was still time for Cork to threaten the Laois goal again but Cleary’s shot was brilliantly tipped over by Dollard.

CORK: E Harte; AM Walsh, A Walsh, D O’Reilly; B Corkery, B Stack, G O’Flynn; J Murphy (0-4, 0-3 frees), R Buckley; N Cleary (0-3), M Kelly (0-1), G Kearney (0-1); V Mulcahy, R Ní Bhuachalla (1-1), A O’Shea (3-0). Subs: N Kelly for Buckley (53 mins), L McMahon for Kelly (58 mins), A Sheehan for Kearney (60 mins), O Farmer for O’Shea (60 mins).

LAOIS: C Dollard; L Hyland, G Dunne, E Healy; A Taylor, J Moore, M McEvoy; A Casey, T Lawlor (0-3, 0-2 frees); Mary Kirwan (0-1, free), A Moore, M Dunne (1-1); P Fogarty, S Doogue, G Weston (0-1). Subs: Martha Kirwan for Dunne (59 mins), O Farrell for Casey (59 mins).

Referee: G Corrigan (Down).