Donegal 0-21
Cork 1-15

A Patrick McBrearty inspired Donegal were forced to dig deep into their reservoir of experience to see off the stubborn challenge of Cork in the first game of today's All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers Round 4B double bill at Croke Park.

Rory Gallagher's men overcame a slow start to keep their Sam Maguire Cup hopes alive and number 13 McBrearty was their go-to-man as he finished with an impressive individual tally of 0-11 (seven point from play) to his name.

There was an uncharacteristic lack of intensity to Donegal's play early on and Cork capitalised when building up a 1-6 to 0-4 by the 18th minute.

Paul Kerrigan delivered a fantastic finish high to the top corner of the Donegal net in the 17th minute and it's no exaggeration to say that the pre-match favourites were struggling.

The concession of the goal turned out to be blessing in disguise for Donegal, however, as it gave them the proverbial kick up the backside and they responded in impressive fashion.

McBrearty accounted for all of their tally up until that point but he got a helping hand from Eoin McHugh in the 21st minute.

Corner-forward McBrearty registered point number five shortly and the Ulster runners-up hit six of the next seven scores to take over in the lead briefly.

Dual star Aidan Walsh got his first taste of football championship action this year when replacing Alan O'Connor just before Donncha O'Connor brought the scoring in an entertaining first-half to an end to send the Rebels in with a minimum margin 1-9 to 0-11 advantage.

Frank McGlynn had Donegal back on level terms inside four minutes of the restart and the stage was set for an intriguing second-half.

And both sets of players didn't disappoint as Mark Collins and McBrearty traded scores. Then it was the turn of Colm O'Driscoll and Ryan McHugh. Up next was Walsh and Odhran McNiallais.

It was end-to-end stuff throughout the third quarter and with 16 minutes left on the clock Eoin McHugh drew the sides level for the eight time.

The brilliant McBrearty reached double figures in the 62nd minute to edge Donegal in front - 0-18 to 1-14 - and four minutes later Michael Murphy converted a free to give the Tir Chonaill man a two point advantage, which was a sizable lead in the context of this game.

Ryan McHugh tagged on the insurance score moments later as Cork's challenge faded badly while it was fitting that his Kilcar clubmate McBrearty should have the final say for the men from the north west with his 11th point - before picking up a black card!

Next up for the Michael Murphy captained outfit is a quarter-final date with All-Ireland champions Dublin.

Donegal - M A McGinley; P McGrath, N McGee, E McGee; R McHugh (0-3), K Lacey (0-1), F McGlynn (0-1); R Kavanagh, M McElhinney; A Thompson, O MacNiallais (0-1), E McHugh (0-2); P McBrearty (0-11, 4f), M Murphy (0-2, 1f), M O'Reilly. Subs: C Gillespie for E McGee, L McLoone for R Kavanagh, C Toye for A Thompson, M McHugh for F McGlynn, E Doherty for N McGee, H McFadden for M McElhinney.

Cork - R Price; C O'Driscoll (0-2), E Cadogan, S Cronin; Tomas Clancy (0-1), Tom Clancy (0-2), K O'Driscoll (0-2); A O'Connor, I Maguire; P Kerrigan (1-1), S Powter (0-1), M Collins (0-1); D O'Connor (0-2), P Kelleher, M Hurley. Subs: A Walsh (0-1) for A O'Connor, P Kelly for P Kelleher, C O'Neill (0-2, 1f) for D O'Connor, B O'Driscoll for Tom Clancy, J O'Rourke for K O'Driscoll, A Cadogan for S Powter.

Referee - P Neilan.

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