Under the rules of the Gaming Commission we are obliged to enter an asterisk under this scoreline signifying that it took place in circumstances commonly known as "only the league". We should also note that in previous years we have come away from Derry matches in league play-offs wondering if Eamonn Coleman has hobbled the horses. Nothing proved, but still.

Taking all that into account, though, this was an impressive Cork performance earning them a league semi-final spot and another day out.

Even if Cork had been playing against 15 traffic cones, some of the moves they put together would have looked impressive. The fact that Derry sometimes put up a passable impression of traffic cones will worry Larry Tompkins for a little while. Yet, league quarter-finals have always been like that. Some people want to step off the carousel there and then, others need to ride it out to the end.

What can Cork take from a game which was full of the counterfeit? Well the defence has fewer question marks over it than might have been thought. Anthony Lynch, at left corner back, did a fine job on Joe Brolly and beat the Derryman in most of the gut-busting sprints. Sean O hAilp in, inside at full back, is a little young yet to be holding down a position of such pivotal responsibility, yet he has the physique and the football and Derry's limited ambition didn't trouble him yesterday.

Owen Sexton continued to impress at centre back while on either side of him, he has a couple of the best wing backs in the game. There is a platform there, but Cork will seriously wonder if they will ever be permitted to reproduce the pretty patterns they wove in the first half at Croke Park.

When a team which has been conceding an average of just over eight points a game through the winter suddenly concedes 3-8 to a team which has been scoring an average of 12 points a game in the first half of a league play-off, it is best not to take everything at face value.

Mark O'Sullivan had two fine goals in that carefree first half, but again caveats are required. The Newmarket man who glimmers with so much potential on days like these still has to do it on a really big occasion and the goals were scored while he was marked by David O'Neill, who in his last outing at Croke Park was destroyed late on by Hughie Emerson of Laois.

Derry were motoring along in a middle gear when O'Sullivan got his first. Johnny McBride dropped a catch and Philip Clifford, Joe Kavanagh and, finally, O'Sullivan linked up before the full forward blasted home.

A minute later Derry were presented with an equally good chance at the other end, but Dermot Heaney, two stone lighter than of yore apparently, ignored all better-placed finishers and blasted the ball at Anthony Lynch.

So it went for another couple of minutes, the ball pinballing merrily about the place until Joe Kavanagh was permitted to leave Johnny McBride's company and slalom through the Derry defence before depositing the ball in the Derry net. It was a goal of some aplomb which would merely have been a free in on a summer's day.

A couple of minutes later, more of it - O'Sullivan, catching, turning, soloing and scoring, a full highlights reel in one move. It was scarcely O'Sullivan's fault that we began to think that the absence of people called McKeever, Downey or Diamond on this Derry team had left it looking pale. Up front, Derry were a little thin as well and not just because Geoffrey McGonagle had been consigned to the bench having turned up late. The return under the new management regime of Declan Bateson and Ronan Rocks hasn't produced any surprise dividends worthy of investigation by the Fair Trades Commission and Joe Cassidy's form has dipped a little after his spectacular opening season.

It will be time enough to judge Derry's attacking potential on a summer's day when they have Seamus Downey back from injury and the likes of Cassidy and Eamon Burns back on the high notes.

Yesterday, the six starting forwards, plus McGonagle, a second half substitute, managed one point from play between them. The Cork defence was good, but no defence in the country is that good.

Cork went into the break leading by 3-8 to 0-5 and it would have been intriguing to listen in on the halftime talks in either dressing-room. Reassurance all round one suspects.

After the break the only bright point was an Enda Muldoon goal, fisted home from a Tohill free, and a smattering of lovely scores from various Cork players who, even in their moments of exultation, seemed to be wondering if this was for real.

CORK: K O'Dwyer; M O'Donovan, S O hAilpin, A Lynch; C O'Sullivan (0-2 both frees), O Sexton, M Cronin; M O'Sullivan, L Honohan; A Dorgan, J Kavanagh (1-2), P O'Mahony (0-4, three frees), P Clifford (0-1), M O'Sullivan (2-2), A O'Regan (0-2). Subs: N Murphy (0-1) for Honohan (38 mins), F Collins for P Clifford (45 mins), R McCarthy for N Murphy (52 mins).

DERRY: E McCloskey; S Donnelly, D O'Neill, SM Lockhart; F Crossan, J McBride, G Coleman (0-1); R Boylan, E Muldoon (1-0); A Tohill (0-3, all frees), R Rocks (0-1), D Heaney; J Brolly (0-1, free), D Bateson, J Cassidy. Subs: P McFlynn for Boylan (half-time) G McGonagle for Bateson (45 mins).

Referee: B White (Wexford).