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Full-forward Leah Hallahan in action for Cork against Meath. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n\n Cork 4-8 Meath 2-12\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Cork qualified for the Lidl LGFA National League Division 1 final thanks to a hard-earned win over Meath in MTU Cork last Saturday.<\/p>\n
Victory over Meath secured Cork’s place in this year\u2019s Division 1 National League decider on Saturday, April 11 (venue tbc). It is a terrific achievement for Joe Carroll and his players considering a much-changed senior set-up only gained promotion from Division 2 last year.<\/p>\n
Four goals from Katie Quirke (2), \u00c1ine Terry O\u2019Sullivan and Aimee Corocran helped Cork see off a Meath team who remain in relegation danger heading into next weekend\u2019s final round of games.<\/p>\n
Weather conditions were perfect at throw-in as Cork patiently built an early four-point lead.<\/p>\n
Full-forward Leah Hallahan in action for Cork against Meath. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n
Twice \u00c1ine Terry O\u2019Sullivan went close to a goal, blazing her first effort over the bar and watching a chipped effort saved by a scrambling Robyn Murray after the goalkeeper\u2019s kick-out went awry.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan added two more points before Aoife Healy slotted over a dominant Cork\u2019s fourth unanswered score.<\/p>\n
Emma Duggan\u2019s free settled Meath until Katie Quirke cut in along the end-line and fired into the net after 14 minutes.<\/p>\n
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Leah Hallahan and Katie Quirke try to prevent a clearance by Meath defender Karla Kealy. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n
1-4 to 0-1 behind, Meath dominated the second quarter. Marian Farrelly and Megan Thynne added quick-fire scores before \u00c1ine Terry O\u2019Sullivan was denied a goal by full-back \u00c1ine Sheridan. The Leinster side recovered the ball before working a superb Rachel Casserly score.<\/p>\n
Aoife Healy responded but the remainder of the half belonged to Meath. Dominating their opponents’ kick-outs, the visitors recycled possession from three consecutive restarts and converted through Emma Duggan (two frees) and Rachel Casserly.<\/p>\n
Cork may have led 1-5 to 0-7 at the break but fresh impetus was badly needed.<\/p>\n
It was the visitors who restarted positively however, Emma Duggan landing her fourth free to level the score.<\/p>\n
Just when the game appeared to be slipping from Cork\u2019s grasp, Erin\u2019s Own\u2019s Aimee Corcoran thundered through and found the bottom corner after 36 minutes.<\/p>\n
That green flag galvanised the hosts and a terrific Leah Hallahan point stretched Joe Carroll\u2019s side lead. Katie Quirke added a free and Cork enjoyed a 2-7 to 0-8 advantage heading into the final 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
Ciara Smyth walloped over a long range effort but Meath were pegged back when Katie Quirke scored again.<\/p>\n
Behind 2-8 to 0-9, the Rebels were penalised for a jersey pull in front of their goal with 10 minutes left. Emma Duggan smashed the resulting close-range free into the net to setup a grandstand finish.<\/p>\n
The game back in the melting pot, \u00c1ine Terry O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s palmed into an empty net to make it 3-8 to 1-9 with 5 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
An Emma Duggan free made it a four-point game before O\u2019Sullivan turned provider and fed Katie Quirke to smash home Cork\u2019s fourth goal.<\/p>\n
A late Marion Farrelly goal came too late for Meath but it is Cork who march on to a Division 1 final.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Cork: K Quirke 2-2 (0-2 f), \u00c1 T O\u2019Sullivan 1-3, A Corocran 1-0, A Healy 0-2, L Hallahan 0-1.<\/p>\n
\n Meath: E Duggan 1-5 (0-5 f), M Farrelly 1-1, M Thynne, R Casserly 0-2 each, C Smyth, Nallogly 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n CORK: C Redmond (Glanmire); M (Dohenys), D Kiniry (Lisgoold), S Kelly (Araglen Desmonds Bu\u00ed); A Corcoran (Erin\u2019s Own), S McGoldrick (\u00c9ire \u00d3g), R Corkery (Naomh Ab\u00e1n); A Healy (St Colman\u2019s), A O\u2019Mahony (Glanmire); R Leahy (Aghada), G N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa (Naomh Ab\u00e1n), E Cleary (\u00c9ire \u00d3g, captain); \u00c1 T O\u2019Sullivan, K Quirke (Bride Rovers), L Hallihan (Bride Rovers).<\/p>\n
\n Subs: C Hughes (St Val\u2019s) for D Kiniry (33), R O\u2019Regan (Carrigaline) for L Hallahan (52), K Redmond (Kinsale) for G N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa (52), S Callanan (Clonakilty) for R Corkery (57), A Ring (Aghada) for \u00c1 T O\u2019Sullivan (57), E Hurley for (Ilen Rovers) for R Leahy (60), C McCarthy (St Val\u2019s) for K Quirke (62).<\/p>\n
\n MEATH: R Murray; K Kealy, \u00c1 Sheridan, A Farrell; C Lawlor, O Gore, K Bermingham; O Sheehy, M Thynne; M Farrelly, C Smyth, N Gallogly (captain); E Duggan, L Woods, R Casserly.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: M Byrne for L Woods (41), S Murphy for R Casserly (41), M K Lynch for O Gore (42), C Millington for C Lawlor (47), O Finnegan for O Sheehy (47), \u00d3 Smith for A Farrell (51).<\/p>\n
\n Referee: Seamus Mulvihill (Kerry).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork 4-8 Meath 2-12\u00a0 Cork qualified for the Lidl LGFA National League Division 1 final thanks to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[43268,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-358785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ladies-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}