Three reasons why Cork got hammered by Derry

1. Second-half no show: 

Having started well in the last few games and building up early leads, Cork continued the same pattern here.

They led by three points after 21 minutes, albeit their opposition were playing against the wind. The Derry crowd were on it from the off with a great atmosphere inside the ground.

The home players fed off that and built up a lead that Cork just weren’t able to claw back. The green flag from Lachlan Murray to push Derry four points clear at half-time was a huge score.

It came just as the hooter was about to sound. It made a difference to the scoreboard.

The Cork players went into the dressing room with their heads down. They then got outscored 0-21 to 0-5 in the second 35 minutes.

2. Kick-out squeeze:

The midfield battle is a big part of the modern game now especially since the new rules came in before the start of last season. Cork have done well recently in the middle of the park, but that wasn’t the case here in Derry.

It must be said that the Oakleafers have a brilliant midfield partnership in Conor Glass and Brendan Rogers.

It wouldn’t be a criticism of goalkeeper Micheál Aodh Martin or the midfielders Colm O’Callaghan and Seán Walsh.

Derry got bodies in around the breaks and had great joy over the course of 70 minutes.

Cork only won one of the last six kick-outs in the closing minutes of the first half. That proved costly because Derry’s late scoring surge in that half went a small way to getting the win for the Ulster outfit.

Cork boss John Cleary did mention his side’s midfield struggles after the game.

3. One of those days: 

While you have to give a lot of credit to Derry, everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong for Cork.

The Rebels are most certainly a better team than this and it’s all about bouncing back against Kildare in two weeks at Páirc Uí Rinn. They simply have no other choice now.

They have been excellent at recovering from setbacks under Cleary. Cork had a couple of goal chances in the first half including Seán McDonnell’s one.

The Mallow player looked all but certain to score a goal, but his effort was straight at the goalkeeper. It would have put the Rebels four points clear at that juncture.

They needed a healthy advantage at half-time having played with the wind. It didn’t happen.

The second 35 minutes will be disappointing with the way Derry got many of their scores. It was too easy.

The Leesiders have to regroup now as they head for Portugal on Tuesday for four days for a warm-weather training camp.