O’Neill earns breathing space for Rebels

COLM O’NEILL exceeded last week’s nine-point individual tally when he converted a match-winning 11-point haul to hand Cork victory at Celtic Park.

The victory eased Cork’s relegation worries, while defeated Derry must win at Fermanagh next week amidst the final day mathematical madness.

Ballyclough marksman O’Neill was the sharpest thorn in Derry’s side in the opening half, notching up six points to edge Cork ahead by 0-10 to 1-6 at the break.

Danny Tallon found the net in both halves, but in truth Derry never really looked like winning against a hungrier Rebel side.

Indeed, O’Neill added a further five points after the interval as both he and Paul Kerrigan found their scoring range to guide Peadar Healy’s men home.

Chrissy McKaigue marked his Derry return with the opening score of the game, but within minutes of that Cork raced to a 0-4 to 0-1 lead.

McKaigue led the Derry fightback with a second score and when Tallon rattled the back of the net, it handed the home side the lead in the 30th minute.

But every time Derry threatened, Cork bit back savagely. A Mark Collins point, followed up by an O’Neill brace, regained their lead by half-time.

O’Neill’s seventh point, a beauty in which he held off two men before dissecting the posts, stretched that lead to two before Neil Forester’s

effortaffair Once in made again,the it 40tha Peadar single-pointminute. Healy’sgas and menby the tapped mid-pointon the of the second-half led 0-14 to 1-7.

A second Tallon goal in the 51st minute offered hope to the Oak Leafers – who will be left to rue nine second-half wides – but the Rebels snuffed out any late resistance with a further flurry of points.