Cork edged out a wasteful Dublin to set up a Cadbury All-Ireland under 21 football final showdown with Down at Semple Stadium yesterday.

Cork..1-10
Dublin.1-9

The Rebels lost their captain and top scorer Colm O'Neill to injury and centre forward Shane McCarthy to a red card in the closing stages, but still managed to hold on against a Dublin side who will be ruing their huge tally of 16 wides, 10 of which came in the first half.

The winners, whose manager John Cleary was serving a touchline ban, started brightly and led by 1-4 to 0-2 after 24 minutes thanks to a brilliant left-footed strike by O'Neill. But Dublin cut the gap to three points, 1-4 to 0-4, at half-time.

Jim Gavin's side started the second half strongly and regained parity after 38 minutes when Barry O'Rorke's goal made it 1-6 apiece. The Dubs then moved ahead two minutes later when Paddy Andrews pointed, but Cork - who always found scores earlier to come by - hit back with a run of four unanswered points and they managed to hold until the finish.

Scorers - Cork: C O'Neill 1-4 (2f), C Sheehan 0-3 (1f), D Goold 0-2, M Collins 0-1. Dublin: T Furman, D Rock (3f) 0-3 each, B O'Rorke 1-0, P O'Connor (1f), P Andrews, D Quinn 0-1 each

Cork: A Seymour; S McLoughlin, R Buckley, N Galvin; Connor O'Driscoll, A Walsh, B Daly; C O'Donovan, K O'Driscoll; C Sheehan, S McCarthy, Colm O'Driscoll; C O'Neill, D Goold, P Honahan. Subs: M Collins for Colm O'Driscoll (45), J Fitzpatrick for O'Neill (54)

Dublin: D McDonnell; C Moore, R O'Carroll, H Gill; J Cooper, C O'Sullivan, N Brogan; C Murphy, K Nolan; P O'Connor, L Sweetman, D Kelly; B O'Rorke, P Andrews, D Rock. Subs: T Furman for O'Connor (26), N Devereux for Brogan (38), J Sheanon for Kelly (48m), D Quinn for O'Rourke (51), N Coughlan for Rock (57)

Referee: M Higgins (Fermanagh).