CHAMPIONSHIP 2010:ONE OF those big, lurching, white-knuckle Croke Park days when the delivery of a final verdict seems harsh. Cork won this All-Ireland semi-final and can't be accused of not deserving their victory. Dublin lost and can have regrets but not complaints.

And yet, after 73 minutes nobody in the crowd of 82,225 would have begrudged a draw.

After years of knocking, Cork have reached an All-Ireland final which they will be favourites to win by virtue of their experience and the depth of their panel.

They got there yesterday having trailed for most of the game to a Dublin side which looked more accomplished and more confident.

It was Cork’s reward for their own conviction that they were in touch when it got to endgame and Dublin began to lose their sense of cool.

A penalty.

Three bad frees.

A sending off.

Wounds, each of Dublin’s own making, took them out of the game. Cork could scarcely believe their luck as the gifts kept coming.

“Absolutely relieved. End of story,” said Cork manager Conor Counihan when he came in to face the press. “Titanic struggle. Dublin really put it up to us, as we knew they would, and things really didn’t look good for a long time.”

That just about summed things up.

Dublin had the dream start when their leading blade Bernard Brogan scored a goal after just 60 seconds when a long ball from midfield dropped in over the hands of his marker Ray Carey. Brogan took possession and proceeded to do what he has been doing all year. He scored. His haul for the day would finish at 1-7, all but a point coming from play.

Cork, having suffered that early blow, then entered a period when they were interrogated as if by inquisition.

Counihan’s decision to leave just one player marking Bernard Brogan most of the time looked increasingly open to question as he clicked up score after score to keep his side ahead all the way till half-time.

The personnel charged with corroding Brogan’s influence changed but their number seldom increased even as it begin to look as if it were a job for two or three men.

Dublin remained four points up at half- time having played the better football and, as Michael Dara Macauley, their revelation at midfield, said afterwards, they couldn’t see themselves losing. Cork were blunt in all the places they didn’t need to be.

Pearse O’Neill was being wiped out by Ger Brennan, Graham Canty had started but was less than himself. Midfield was struggling. Ciarán Sheehan was anonymous. Carey on Bernard Brogan seemed like a mismatch.

There was a moment on 31 minutes which seemed to perfectly sum up the difference between the sides. Noel O’Leary had galloped through for Cork and hit a bad wide.

Stephen Cluxton addressed the kick-out and saw all his team-mates taking a breather. No movement, until Macauley stuck his hand up. Cluxton delivered and Macauley, despite being marked, won the ball cleanly. He fed it to Bernard Brogan. Point. As simple as that.

By early in the second half, Canty was gone and Eoin Cadogan was in, as was Nicholas Murphy. Cork seemed to be settling for business.

The change that made the most difference, however, was the introduction of Colm O’Neill on 51 minutes.

He was scarcely on the field when he was hauled down for the concession of a penalty. Donnacha O’Connor converted with iced blood.

Dublin recovered their senses to score the next two points, and looked to have weathered the storm, but O’Neill cropped up again on the hour for another point. It became clear that Dublin were in quicksand and a getaway was looking unlikely.

The game was lost in a three- minute period from the 66th. Donncha O’Connor had a handy free. He took it and scored from it as Dublin full back Rory O’Carroll was being treated. O’Carroll, albeit reluctantly, had to leave the field injured.

Dublin introduced Denis Bastick but the shape and composure was awry by now.

Another foul on 68 minutes.Another point extracted by O’Connor.

A minute later, Ross McConnell, who had conceded the penalty, threw himself into a tackle and had begun the long walk off even before he was shown the red card.

Another point. And Cork were in front for the first time in the game.

Derek Kavanagh and (inevitably) Bernard Brogan traded points before the end but, unlike 1983, the goal Dublin needed and craved failed to materialise.

“We conceded a penalty and a number of soft frees,” said Pat Gilroy somewhat ruefully.

“We will have to look at why we conceded them. Maybe we were a bit tired, but we also had some wild stuff down the other end when we could have held on to the ball a little longer.

“Look, it’s a one-point defeat and when it is that narrow it is all the little things that you look at, but when you lose you just have to go and learn lessons from it. We lost and we gave everything though. That is easier to deal with than if we just didn’t show up.”

And for Cork, the final frontier beckons.

If Dublin have closed the gap between themselves and the top teams, Cork have inched closer to the ultimate success. They still need to convince a few doubters though, including those within their ranks.

“We have an awful lot of work to do now,” said Counihan.

“But we created some opportunities in that first half which if we had finished them off would have made life easier, but Dublin were never going to go away.”

Kildare and Down meet in Croke Park next Sunday in the second semi-final to decide who Cork face in the final.