Down man Conor McCrickard scored a brace of first-half goals to lead Cork champions St Finbarr's back to the Munster club SFC final for the first time since 1986.

McCrickard was the star of the show for the Barrs today as he bagged 2-1 in a commanding 2-14 to 0-12 victory over Eire Og of Ennis at Pairc Ui Rinn. County final hero Stephen Sherlock (0-9) and Cillian Myers-Murray (0-3) played key supporting roles - the impressive inside attacking trio accounted for all bar one point of their side's final tally.

Leading by 0-2 to 0-3 after 11 minutes, Eire Og were in front until McCrickard breached their defence to smash home his opening goal. Though they lost influential midfielder Ian Maguire to a black card, St Finbarr's never looked in any danger from there as they built up a 2-7 to 0-4 interval advantage.

Eire Og, who had Darren O'Neill sent off in injury-time, refused to throw in the towel and with the help of two Conal Ó hAiniféin points, made it a four-point game (2-10 to 0-12) with 10 minutes of normal time remaining. St Finbarr's, however, were able to pick off the last four points to ensure themselves of a provincial decider date with Austin Stacks in four weeks' time.

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