ALLIANZ HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION 1A: Dublin 4-21 Cork 2-17

By Peter Sweeney at Croke Park

Dublin condemned Cork to their third Allianz Hurling League Division 1A defeat on the bounce at Croke Park on Saturday night.

The Rebels had lost to Waterford and Galway in their opening games so badly needed a win agains the Dubs.

But this game was over at half-time as they trailed by 12 points following a remarkable opening 35 minutes.

They now face the daunting prospect of the arrival of All-Ireland champions Kilkenny at Pairc Ui Rinn next weekend with the prospect of relegation out of the top flight looming large.

Cork actually started this game brightly and led by 04 to 0-2 after five minutes. The wheels quickly fell off though and in the following 22 minutes they conceded 3-6 without reply.

Man of the match Eamon Dillon, who scored 2-3 from play, got the first, David Treacy followed up shortly after and Sean McGrath raised the green flag for the third time.

This helped leave the scores at 3-12 to 0-9 at the break.

If Cork were to have any chance of making the scoreline in this game respectable they needed to burst out of the traps after the change of ends

This didn’t happen and it quickly became clear that this game was over as a contest as the teams traded scores.

Dillon got his second goal, Dublin’s third, just after the three-quarter hour mark as this game cruised towards its inevitable conclusion.

Seamus Harnedy got two late Rebel goals long after Dublin had switched off, the second well into stoppage time at the end of the 70 minutes, though this merely papered over cracks in what was a poor performance.

The Dubs are now on two wins out of three and will have one eye on a spot in the Division 1 playoffs.

Scorers for Dublin: E Dillon 2-3, D Treacy 1-7 (4f), S McGrath 1-0, M Schutte, S Barrett, N McMorrow 0-2 each, J McCaffrey, D Plunkett, D O’Callaghan, S Treacy 0-1 each.

Scorers for Cork: S Harnedy 2-0, P Horgan 0-7 (6f 1 ’65’), C Lehane 0-4, L O’Farrell 0-2, P Haughney 0-2 (1 ’65’) B Lawton, B Cooper 0-1 each

Dublin: Conor Dooley; Eoghan O'Donnell, Cian O'Callaghan, Oisin Gough; Shane Barrett, Liam Rushe, John McCaffrey; Darragh O'Connell, Daire Plunkett; Sean McGrath, Niall McMorrow, Eamon Dillon; David O'Callaghan, David Treacy, Mark Schutte

Subs: Colm Cronin for McGrath (HT); Joey Boland for McCaffrey (57); Sean Treacy for O’Callaghan (64); Fiontan McGibb for Treacy (64); James Madden for Cian O’Callaghan (68).

Cork: Anthony Nash; Killian Burke, Christopher Joyce, Stephen McDonnell; Damien Cahalane, Mark Ellis, Cormac Murphy; Daniel Kearney, Brian Lawton; Bill Cooper, Seamus Harnedy, Patrick Cronin; Conor Lehane, Luke Farrell, Patrick Horgan

Subs: Paul Haughney for Kearney (31); Stephen Murphy for McDonnell (HT); Paudie O’Sullivan for Cronin (44).

Referee: Alan Kelly (Galway)