James Naughton bags brace as clinical Limerick footballers stun Cork in McGrath Cup clash

“WE lifted ourselves for the second half, so we are happy with the result, but there is still a few things to work on.”

It isn't often that Limerick senior footballers gain a victory over Cork, but manager Jimmy Lee had a moment to savour after his team got the better of the Rebels 3-11 to 0-15 on their home turn of Páirc Ui Rinn in their final qualifying outing in the McGrath Cup under sodden conditions on Sunday.

Unfortunately Limerick's five point margin of victory was 10 short of the target needed to covercome Cork's score difference in order to qualify for the final against Kerry.

Limerick had lost their ope ning group fixture to Tipperary at Mick Neville Park.

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However, this win over Cork undervalues Limerick's level of dominance of a clash that produced some excellent passages of play in spite of the wet weather conditions.

The result may have bene influenced by wholesale changes to both line-ups which saw the return of some Limerick regulars and fringe members of the Cork panel getting the chance to shine.

But this was a chance for the visitors to make a statement ahead of their National League Division 3 opener against Laois in under two weeks' time.

At half-time, it looked like Limerick were blowing it as they trailed, despite getting the upperhand in most of the exchanges.

But once the Shannonsiders got moving after the restart, a powerful presence in midfield and some slick raids up front showed that the major improvements of last season hadn't been lost.

After Cork went ahead from the first attack, Conall O'Duinn's pass after scorching down the right was fisted to the net by Jack McCarthy.

However, their lead was overtaken coming up to the break when Cork gained a two-pointer free from Conor Daly and the home side led 0-8 to 1-4 at half-time.

Despite conceding another point after the restart, Limerick dominated the third quarter and took the lead after four unanswered points. Going past the three quarter mark, the Shannonsiders looked like they had the put game away when James Naughton collected off Danny Neville's solo and shot to the net.

However, as Cork fought back, Limerick failed to keep up the momentum and three points from the Leesiders had the margin back to just one point going into injury time.

Despite missing a free to push the margin out to two, Naughton sent over a precious point straight from the kick-out and then gave Limerick their deserved margin of victory when running onto another Neville pass to bang home his second goal with the last play of the game.

SCORERS: Cork: Conor Daly 0-5 (0-3 frees), Diarmuid Buckley (1 2pt free, 0-1 free), Darragh Cashman 0-3 each, Luke Murphy, Sean Walsh, Paddy O’Driscoll, Sean Dore 0-1 each. Limerick: James Naughton 2-5 (0-4 frees), Jack McCarthy 1-0, Robbie Childs, Conal Ó Duinn 0-2 each, Jack Mahon, Danny Neville 0-1 each.

CORK: Darragh Newman; Sean Meehan, Colm Molloy, Jacob O’Driscoll; Kevin O’Donovan (capt), Tomas O’Mahony, Darragh Cashman; Sean Dore, Tom Cunningham; Fintan Fenner, Conor Daly, David Buckley; Denis O’Connor, Luke Murphy, Ciaran Santry. Subs: Colm O’Shea for O’Mahony, Colm Gillespie for Fenner, Sean Walsh for Buckley (all half-time), Paddy O’Driscoll for O’Donovan, Kevin O’Reilly for Santry (both 42), Luke Casey for Murphy (49), Callum Dungan for Newman, Cormac Hyland for  Meehan, Sean Copps for Molloy (all 53).

LIMERICK: Jeffrey Alfred; Oran Collins, Diarmuid Buckley, Mark McCarthy; Conal Ó Duinn, Killian Ryan, Tony McCarthy; Jack McCarthy, Barry Coleman (capt); Rory O’Brien, Danny Neville, Eliah Riordan; Jack Mahon, James Naughton, Rob Childs.
Subs: Colm McSweeney for Ó Duinn, Jason Hassett for Collins, Paul Maher for Riordan (all half-time), Shane Cross for Childs, Sam Quigley for Coleman (both 42), Lee Woulfe for O’Brien (53), Sean Kilbridge for Woulfe (56, inj).

Referee: Eoin Morrissey (Waterford).