Joanne Casey shows nerves of steel to fire Cork into the intermediate All-Ireland camogie final

Cork 0-14 

Derry 1-10 

A pointed free five minutes into added time propelled Cork into the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Intermediate camogie final where they will join their senior counterparts in Croke Park after they edged it over Derry in an exciting semi-final in UMPC Nowlan Park on Sunday afternoon.

Cork led at the interval 0-6 to 0-4 and they would have been happy to do so given that Derry having played with the aid of the very strong wind in the opening half were guilty of shooting nine wide’s as they failed to capitalise on the possession they won. 

Cork worked hard with Lauren Callanan at midfield doing huge work as she broke up a lot of ball and drove forward, up front with Lauren Homan and Hayley Ryan on top they had pace over the Derry defence.

Joanne Casey pointed to open Cork's account on two minutes and Derry wining a lot of early possession hit three wides in a row before Teresa Mallon had them on level five minutes in. 

Cork looked nervous as Derry came at them and were it not for wayward shooting by Derry Cork would have trailed.

Twice they sides swapped points and it was level pegging at the end of the opening quarter, Lauren Homan and Cliona O’Callaghan edged Cork two clear before Aine McAllister converted a Derry free.

Cork were let off the hook when Derval O’Kane’s effort hit the post and bounced narrowly wide before Lauren Homan restored Cork's lead to two point before the break Derry made the better start to the second half as Cork totally lost their shape and three unanswered point saw they take the lead for the first time in the contest.

Aine McAllister converted two frees as in between Shannon O ‘Doherty hit one for Derry. 

McAllister and Kaitlin Hickey swapped points but Derry grabbed the lead with Shannon O’Doherty crashing the ball to the net.

Twice the sides swapped point as Cork hung onto the Derry coat tails and three Cork points without reply had it all square with one minute of added time played. 

Sinead McGill hit what looked as if it might be a Derry winner, but credit Cork who dug deep and winning a free, Casey converted it to level matters before the same player showed nerves of steel to slot over the winner.

It was hard and tough but credit Cork who held their composure to earn the narrowest of victories to ensure they meet Galway in Croke Park on August 7th.

Scorers for Cork: J Casey 0-7 (f’s), L Homan 0-3, K Hickey 0-2, C O’ Callaghan , R O’ Shea 0-1 each.

Derry: A Mc Allister 0-5 (0-4f’s), S O’ Doherty 1-1, A Mc Gill, S Mallon, T Mallon M Mc Nicholl 0-1 each.

Cork: S Beausang; A Moloney, N O’ Leary, G Hannon; J O’Leary, K Kilcummins, L O’ Sullivan; L Callanan, R Harty; J Casey, M Murphy, S Hutchinson; L Homan, H Ryan, C O’Callaghan.

Subs: K Hickey for M Murphy (44), A O’ Callaghan for J O’ Leary (48), R O’ Shea for C O’ Callaghan (55).

Derry: N Mc Quillan; R Kirkpatrick, M Mooney, M Kerr; R Bradley, G McNicholl, C Glass; A McAllister, M McNicholl, A Ni Chaiside; D O’Kane, M McNicholl, S Mellon; A Shaw, S O’ Doherty, T Mellon.

Subs: R Downey for C Glass (27), S Mc Gill for A Ni Chaiside (inj 29), R Cassidy for M Mooney (49), M Rafferty for T Mellon (58).

Referee: Mike Ryan (Tipperary).