The ultimate ambush. In the end, one Cork fan in the terrace danced deliriously surrounded by green and gold. Six two-pointers, four from Steven Sherlock, powered them to a sensational shock victory.<\/p>\n
They were full value for it. Donegal scored just six points in the second half. They didn\u2019t raise a single orange flag. Cork came with a methodical gameplan and executed it perfectly.<\/p>\n
\u201cRebels. Rebels. Rebels,\u201d came the chant from the field afterwards. Turlough Carr had a late chance to seize an ill-deserved win but his shot went over. A burst of two-pointers down the straight from Lukey Fahy, Tommy Walsh and a Sherlock free turned the tie on its head.<\/p>\n
The environment was primed for open football. A sellout crowd gathered at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey where the pitch was in pristine condition. The venue was closed for over a year to complete extensive upgrades.<\/p>\n
Despite that glorious surface, the first half was pedestrian. Donegal led 1-7 to 0-5 at the turnaround. The goal came after a short kickout by Patrick Doyle found Daniel O\u2019Mahony but he was turned over by ferocious tackling from Michael Murphy.<\/p>\n
The big number 14 raced in on goal and selflessly squared to Conor O\u2019Donnell for a simple finish.<\/p>\n
In a significant move, Jim McGuinness started Shaun Patton in goals for the first time since the All-Ireland final. Cork prospect Dara Sheedy made his return after suffering a hamstring injury in April. He scored their opening point of the half.<\/p>\n
John Cleary was a man with a plan. If they had the ball, Donegal could not hurt them. They were patient with almost every attack, content to go slow. In the All-Ireland favourites backyard, pragmatism has its place.<\/p>\n
Steven Sherlock had to deal with close attention from Brendan McCole. He kicked an early two-pointer, added another free from outside the arc and just hooked one more.<\/p>\n
Donegal\u2019s remarkable efficiency was on full display once more. They only turned the ball over once in the first half, a Murphy palmed goal effort that was cleared off the line. Oisin Gallen caught a burst early on kicking three quick-fire points.<\/p>\n
It looked like it would continue in this pattern. Cork had other plans.<\/p>\n
It was 1-10 to six when Cork first hit back with a two-point free. Conor Corbett came on and scored with his first possession. A fisted effort off the post late on could have cost them but Donegal couldn\u2019t take advantage.<\/p>\n
Afterwards as the stadium announcer pleaded with players and fans to leave the field, Cleary\u2019s side stayed put. They had earned their spot.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Donegal: C. O\u2019Donnell 1-0; O. Gallen 0-3; M. Murphy 0-2 (1 free); M. Langan 0-2; R. McHugh, P. Mogan, S. O\u2019Donnell, T. Carr, J. McGee, P. Mogan 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Cork: S. Sherlock 0-9 (3 tpf, 1 tp, 1f); T. Walsh, L. Fahy (tp) 0-2 each; S. McDonnell, I. Maguire, S. McDonnell, D. Sheedy 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n DONEGAL: S. Patton; E. Gallagher, B. McCole, P. Mogan; R. McHugh, C. McGonagle, F. Roarty; J. McGee, H. McFadden; S. O\u2019Donnell, M. Langan, C. Moore; C. O\u2019Donnell, M. Murphy, O. Gallen.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: C. McColgan for S. O\u2019Donnell (55); T. Carr for C. O\u2019Donnell (60);<\/p>\n
\n CORK: P. Doyle; M. Shanley, D. O\u2019Mahony, S. Meehan; B. O\u2019Driscoll, T. Walsh, L. Fahy; I. Maguire, S. Walsh; P. Walsh, S McDonnell, D. Sheedy; M. Cronin, C. Og Jones, S. Sherlock.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: R. Deane for Sheedy (45); C. Corbett for Cronin (50); J. O\u2019Driscoll for Meehan (61, Inj); C. Cahalane for Walsh, B. Hurley for Og Jones (65);<\/p>\n
\n Referee: D. Gough (Meath).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ultimate ambush. In the end, one Cork fan in the terrace danced deliriously surrounded by green and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[177329,2110,23713,1964,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-498021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-championship-2026","tag-cork-sport","tag-irish-examiner-instagram-sport","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498021","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=498021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}