Cork booked their place in the All-Ireland football semi final thanks to a dramatic 2-11 to 1-11 over a Kildare side that took too long to find their form at sunny Croke Park this afternoon. The Munster side should have been out of sight midway through the second half, but they allowed Kildare back into the match and had to endure a nervy final few minutes, although thye did deserve their victory. Thankfully, the weather improved dramatically from the previous afternoon and the match begun in dry conditions, something that has been all too absent in this country so far this year. The surface of the pitch was in perfect condition, despite the heavy rainfall. Cork were red hot favourites to advance to the semi final where Kerry awaited the winners, while for Kildare, they had nothing to lose at this stage as they had surprised many by reaching this stage of the championship. Kildare played into the Hill in the first half as they sides met in the championship for the first time since 1956. Even though they were not named in the starting line up, both James Masters and Michael Cussen started for Cork. Cork raced into a commanding lead and it looked as if Kildare were going to be hammered, but they slowly came back into the match, to reduce a nine-point deficit to six at half time, although they still had a lot of work to do in the remaining 35 minutes. The first score of the match came when Daniel Goulding converted a 13 metre free in the fifth minute. There was another four minutes on the clock before the next score and once again, it was for Cork as a surging run by Anthony Lynch lead to pass to Pierce O'Neill, who kept going forward and slotted over a fine point. The a minute later, a long ball in was gathered by John Hayes and the corner forward coolly slotted by the advancing Enda Murphy and the same played made it 1-3 to 0-0 soon after as Kildare looked in trouble. Cussen made it 2-3 to 0-0 in the 16th minute when Cussen stole in behind the defence and got to a high ball before Murphy to fist home as Kildare looked out of sorts all over the field of play. Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney brought on Mark Scanlon and Darragh Flynn in the hope of stopping the rot and Eamonn Callaghan opened the Lilywhites account with a point in the 20th minute. It may had taken Cussen a while to settle, but he kicked a fine point after the full forward fielded a long ball, which Cork were using regularly, while the Kildare management made their third substitution of the first half when Michael Conway was introduced for Padraig O'Neill. In the 25th minute Alan Smith got the better of Diarmuid Duggan and tapped over Kildare's second point, but already they needed either a run of points or a goal to get back into the match. Then Ronan Sweeney was brought on for Ken Donnelly as amazingly Kildare made their fourth switch of the half. John Doyle opened his account with a pointed free to reduce the gap to seven points after 28 minutes of the first half. The experienced Dermot Earley added another to lift the Leinster side as the pendulum looked to be swaying in their favour. However, Masters steadied the Cork ship as he worked hard to make room and slot over with his favoured left foot. Soon after Hayes could have had a third goal but Ger Spillane's ball was just too long and Kildare worked the ball down to Smith who tapped over his second of the afternoon, which was the last score of the half as Cork lead by 2-5 to 0-5 at the interval. Hayes was in excellent form and a nice flick up saw him get in down the end line and score a fine point from a tight angle, just a minute after the second half had started. O'Neill added another for Cork as the gap was now eight points, much to the disillusionment of the Lilywhites' large following. Cussen showed off his array of skills by kicking a fine point off his left foot to make it 2-8 to 0-5 just six minutes into the second half as Kildare needed some scores badly or this game was gone beyond their grasp at this stage. Sweeney had a shout at a penalty when he was brought down just outside the 13 metre line and Conway tapped over the free for their first score of the second half. Nonetheless, Cork's response was swift as Goulding fired over a fine score and then the Leesiders brought on Michael Shields for Derek Kavanagh, who was having a fine match at full back. Kildare were threw a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty when Duggan brought down Smith and Sweeney stepped up to take the spot kick, but for the second week running the Lilywhites missed a penalty as Alan Quirke got down well to save comfortably. Good work by Gary White saw Smith make room to slot over his third of the match as John Miskella and Fintain Gould were brought on for Brian O'Regan and Donncha O'Connor respectively. Smith, had a chance of a goal, but the Cork defence smothered his shot and the danger was averted. The point of the match came in the 55th minute when Doyle showed what he is capable of doing by kicking a long range point from under the Hogan Stand to leave the scoreline 2-9 to 0-8. The same played slotted over a free from 20 metres to bring the gap back down to six points once again, but they really needed a goal as the game entered the final ten minutes. Hayes scored another excellent point in the 63rd minute, which in fact was Cork's first score since the 16th minute to steady things as they looked to be heading for a place in the semi final. Kildare stayed in touch with another converted Doyle free, but they were playing catch up right from the start and unless they could manage a goal, their interest in this year's championship was about to come to an end. Daniel Goulding was on the end of a fine Cork move and the corner forward opted to fist over the bar when one on one with Murphy, which was probably the sensible thing to do. Two great stalwarts on both sides were then introduced as Anthony Rainbow came on for Kildare, while Noel O'Leary was introduced to the Munster side. Smith won a free that was pointed by Doyle, but it was just a matter of running the clock down for Cork at this stage. A second penalty was awarded to Kildare when Earley was brought down and Doyle stuck it in the corner of the net to reduce the gap to three points with one minute of normal time remaining. Kildare had one last chance to get the goal, but Cork defended stoutly as time ran out for the Lilywhites as Conor Counihan's charges go through to the semi final, although they could have made it so much easier for themselves. Cork - A Quirke, D Duggan, D Kavanagh, A Lynch, B O'Regan, G Spillane, K O'Connor, P O'Neill 0-2, A O'Connor, D O'Connor, J Masters 0-1, S O'Brien, D Goulding 0-3, 1f, M Cussen 1-2, J Hayes 1-3. Subs - M Shields for Kavanagh, J Miskella for O'Regan, F Goold for D O'Connor, P Kelly for A O'Connor, N O'Leary for Duggan. Kildare - E Murphy, M O'Flaherty, K O'Neill, A McLoughlin, E Bolton, M Foley, M Scanlon, K Brennan, D Earley 0-1, J Kavanagh, P O'Neill, E Callaghan 0-1, A Smyth 0-3, K Donnelly, J Doyle 1-5, 1-0 pen, 4f. Subs - G White for Scanlon, D Flynn for Brennan, M Conway 0-1, 1f for O'Neill, R Sweeney for Donnelly, A Rainbow for Callaghan. Ref - P McEnaney (Monaghan) Tweet

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