Cork are safely through to a tenth successive All-Ireland quarter-final after beating Sligo by 0-21 to 1-11 at Tullamore.

Having put their Munster final humiliation behind them this evening, the Rebels - who played with a lot more men than usual behind the ball - will face Connacht champions Mayo at Croke Park next Sunday.

Making his first start of the year, Colm O'Neill lofted over ten of the Rebel County's points, while Paul Kerrigan delivered a Man of the Match display for the runaway victors.

Even though Sligo briefly closed within four points at the start of the fourth quarter, they never realistically looked like winning this match. The winners never moved into top gear and passed up on a series of goal chances, yet won at a canter. It will be interesting to see how their new system serves them in eight days' time.

With the wind at their backs, Cork bossed the first half to lead by 0-10 to 0-2 at the interval. The damage was done in a devastating 20-minute spell between the third and 23rd minutes when the beaten Munster finalists notched eight points without reply.

The Leesiders have tweaked their system of play, deploying a much more defensive approach than would be normally associated with Cork football, today operating a two-man full-forward line and two-man half-forward line, with everybody else tracking back, which left the Connacht county labouring (even though they had 54% of possession in the opening period).

The underdogs struck the first point courtesy of Mark Breheny in the second minute but Brian Cuthbert's men overtook them with a run of points from Colm O'Neill, Paul Kerrigan and Donal Og Hodnett to lead by 0-3 to 0-1 after eight minutes.

A scrappy period of play followed, with a series of wides at both ends, including a fisted Kerrigan effort in the 14th minute which went behind off an upright. Brian Hurley swung a 16th-minute free between the posts to register the Rebels' fourth successive score.

O'Neill's close-range free made it five-in-a-row and Cork full back Eoin Cadogan did well to snuff out an Adrian Marren opportunity before championship debutant Ian Maguire evaded his man to slot a 20th-minute snapshot between the posts for a sixth consecutive Cork score.

As the procession continued unabated, Kerrigan added a brace and a converted Marren free represented the Yeats County's first score in some 24 minutes of play - 0-8 to 0-2 after 26 minutes. There was still time for O'Neill to bring his first-half tally to four as he fisted over a point and then converted a '45' to leave eight between them at the short whistle.

Aidan Walsh opened the second-half scoring by thumping over a sensational long-range free into the breeze and O'Neill blazed a goal chance over the bar before effortlessly added his sixth point of the match. Charlie Harrison replied with a great point from distance but that score barely raised a cheer and the player himself looked almost angry as he spun around to retreat with his side trailing by 0-13 to 0-3.

Marren added a free five minutes after the restart as Pat Flanagan's men registered back-to-back scores for the first time. When the Sligo full forward speared two more frees between the posts, the gap was back to just seven points. But Kerrigan's fourth point left the scoreboard reading Cork 0-14 Sligo 0-6 after 48 minutes.

Breheny drilled over a remarkable free from a nigh-on-impossible angle but the reply was again instant and all too easy, this time from the boot of O'Neill.

In the 16th minute of the second half, Stephen Coen's speculative nature bagged him a Sligo goal as he moved in beneath a Breheny effort that dropped short and flicked the ball past the exposed Ken O'Halloran to the Cork net - Sligo's first championship goal in over two years.

Coen also cancelled out O'Neill's free as the underdogs remained within five points with three-quarters of the match played. A Breheny free closed the gap to four but Kerrigan took his point on 58 minutes to make it 0-17 to 1-9.

Walsh's point on the hour gave the Rebel County a little more breathing space and O'Neill tagged on a late brace before Marren pulled back a free for the losers. Substitute Damien Cahalane and Marren swapped the last two points of the match as Sligo's season came to an end and the Leesiders secured a quarter-final date with Mayo.

Cork - K O'Halloran; J Loughrey, E Cadogan, N Galvin; B O'Driscoll, Thomas Clancy, M Shields; I Maguire (0-1), A Walsh (0-2, 1f); M Collins, P Kerrigan (0-5), C O'Driscoll; B Hurley (0-1f), C O'Neill (0-10, 3f, 1'45), D Og Hodnett (0-1). Subs: F Goold for I Maguire, D Cahalane (0-1) for Thomas Clancy, D Goulding for D Og Hodnett, J O'Rourke for C O'Driscoll, Tomas Clancy for B O'Driscoll, J Dineen for A Walsh.

Sligo - A Devaney; K Cawley, R Donovan, N Ewing; C Harrison (0-1), B Egan, B Curran; A McIntyre, K McDonnell; P Hughes, M Breheny (0-3, 2f), J Kilcullen; S Coen (1-1), A Marren (0-6, 5f), D Kelly. Subs: J Hynes for D Kelly, S McManus for J Kilcullen, C Griffin for S Coen, E McHugh for B Curran.

Referee - D Gough. Tweet

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