Masters' stroke gives Cork vital edge

All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers Round Four/Cork 3-13 Sligo 0-11: The overall picture first. Cork ended a championship goal famine dating back to June 2003, to ensure Sligo were always the pursuers in this novel pairing on Saturday evening. Their reward is a shot at Galway next Sunday in Croke Park and Billy Morgan tried to convince us afterwards his men had achieved their objectives for 2005.

We didn't believe him.

Back in the winter, as Sligo spluttered through the league, wise onlookers questioned Dominic Corrigan's decision to leave Tyrone club champions Carrickmore to take up the reins of an aging panel that seemed to have run its course. He saw a young, vibrant football county.

It turned out Sligo, like any intercounty team, thrive on the taste of success. Scalping Longford, Kildare and Clare kept alive their recent tradition of success on the back roads.

What comes next for this relationship is unclear. Corrigan's achievements make him the most coveted journeyman around and will probably mean the next big appointment in Ulster will be the Fermanagh man. Donegal are on the prowl.

Talking about his optimism for next year, regarding the old guard staying on, he was far from convincing about whether he, too, would return. "I would hope they will all be on board next year and I would hope that there will be no retirements. I do not expect any. There are certainly promising signs for the future. Most of these Sligo lads are still in their mid-20s.

"If I'm back in Sligo next year I expect Paul Taylor to be back as well."

What do you mean "if" you are back? "Ah well, we'll see. I'll be meeting the county board in the next couple of weeks. There is no panic on that yet. We'll not rule anything in or out at this stage."

If Eamonn O'Hara and Taylor were fit, Cork would have been at least forced to the wire. However, their superiority at midfield and Sligo's lack of a focal point in attack allowed them to pull clear in the final quarter.

The killer blow was a delicately taken goal by James Masters on 56 minutes after Philip Greene pulled off an excellent penalty save from Brendan Jer O'Sullivan. It left Sligo seven points adrift and clinging on.

The penalty came when midfielder Nicholas Murphy was dragged down by Seán Davey as he gathered a high ball. It was a risk worth taking as Greene had been impressive all day and didn't deserve to concede three goals.

In fact, Sligo did a solid job snuffing out any lethargic Cork attacks from deep. Like all Corrigan-trained teams, they hunted in packs.

But Cork have plenty going for them. Graham Canty is, as ever, a rock at full back while the half-back line of Owen Sexton, Anthony Lynch and particularly Noel O'Leary, who kicked 0-3, oozed class. With O'Sullivan recovered sufficiently from a back injury, they also have an experienced ball-carrier around the half-forward line.

Right from the start they looked a better bet. John Hayes, one of the new boys, posted three early points, with one punched effort from a Conor McCarthy delivery showing the difference in quality up front.

However, Cork still needed a goal from Murphy on 11 minutes to ensure a five-point gap at half-time. Two thumping scores from Davey and Mark Breheny, plus Brian Curran and Dessie Sloyan contributions, kept Sligo followers in the 7,931 crowd attentive.

Sligo's lack of inventiveness in the final third of the field hindered them no end. Cork defended well but it says a lot when the captain and chief marksman, Sloyan, gets pulled 10 minutes from time.

Still they kept coming. Masters' goal was almost immediately negated but replacement Gerry McGowan blasted over when he at least should have forced Kevin O'Dwyer into action.

Then Cork rattled up three unanswered points before Kevin MacMahon ghosted through a fading rearguard for the third goal, again, only stubbornly surrendered by Greene.

"The pressure is off us now as we said we wanted to make the All-Ireland quarter-finals so we'll see how far we can go," said Morgan.

CORK: 1 K O'Dwyer; 2 N Geary, 3 G Canty, 4 G Murphy; 5 O Sexton, 6 A Lynch, 7 N O'Leary (0-3); 8 D Kavanagh (0-1), 9 N Murphy (1-0); 10 J Masters (1-1), 11 C McCarthy (0-1), 12 K MacMahon (1-0); 14 BJ O'Sullivan (0-2), 13 J Hayes (0-4, two frees), 15 F Goold. Subs: 27 K O'Sullivan for Hayes (25-30 minutes), 18 M Cronin (0-1) for Sexton (inj, 39 mins), 23 P Clifford for Goold (51 mins), 22 D Hurley for N Murphy (62 mins), 26 A Cronin for Masters, 19 S Levis for Lynch (both 66 mins).

SLIGO: 1 P Greene; 2 P Naughton, 3 J Martyn, 4 B Philips; 5 P Doohan, 6 B Egan, 7 J Davey; 8 S Davey (0-4, three frees), 9 N McGuire; 10 J McPartland (0-1), 11 M Breheny (0-3, two frees), 12 T Taylor; 13 D McTiernan, 14 D Sloyan (0-1), 15 B Curran (0-1). Subs: 22 D McGarty for Taylor (31 mins), 24 G McGowan (0-1) for McTiernan (half-time), 20 K Sweeney for Sloyan (59 mins), 18 C Harrison for Martyn (67 mins), 25 P McGovern for Egan (70 mins).

Referee: M Hughes (Tyrone).