Derry manager Ciarán Meenagh was delighted with his side's immediate response to Cork's goal as the Ulster champions booked their place in the semi-finals of the All-Ireland SFC this afternoon.
On top for much of the first half at Croke Park, the Oak Leafers took a one-point lead into half-time and had stretched it out to four by the 44th minute.
The Rebels then struck for a well worked goal, finished cleverly by Rory Maguire, but Derry rattled the net themselves inside a minute.
Moments later Shane McGuigan landed a free to stretch the lead out to five with 20 minutes to play and Meenagh's charges were able to manage the game from there.
"That was a huge score, it was worth more than three," he told RTÉ's Sunday Sport afterwards.
"It was a sucker punch to Cork, taking the wind out of their sails completely. It was going to be very difficult [for them] if we managed the game properly, and defended with the principles which we do, and then attack smartly.
"From that stage I felt we were in control in terms of seeing the rest of the game out."
On the game overall, Meenagh added that his side had delivered the type of performance that they had been working on in the build-up.
"I'm very relieved," he added. "We came here to hopefully win by one point. If we won by more that was a bonus.
"I'm delighted, relieved we won the game against a very tricky Cork outfit, who had momentum behind them.
"We won by four and probably left a fair bit behind us. It was the nature in which we responded to Cork's goal, in particular, and of them starting much better than us in the game.
"All things that we had talked about and we planned forensically and so it was in terms of how we delivered."
Next up for Derry will be Kerry after they were pulled out alongside them in the draw.
"We're down now into the nitty gritty of it," said Meenagh.
"Kerry were hugely impressive yesterday and the winners of this next game [Dublin v Mayo]... we're down to the very finest edge of the wedge.
"Unless we improve a lot, we're going to have a very difficult day at the office the next day."
Maguire and Doherty hit the net within a minute. Cork had been back to within a point briefly
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For Cork manager John Cleary it was a case of his side not getting to the level of performance that he believes they're capable of.
"At times we played reasonably well but I thought overall we fell a bit flat on the day," he said.
"Derry were more efficient than we were. We only ended up with nine scores and that's not good enough at this level and we know that. Hopefully it's something we can work on in the future.
"Some of our defending was exceptional but our transitional play up the field wasn't as good as it should be. There were times we could have been more clinical and ultimately that's what cost us in the end."
Reflecting on the immediate concession of the goal, just after scoring one of their own, Cleary added: "The big thing was to hold that for a few minutes but we weren't able to.
"They went down the field and got a goal straight away, a bit like we did against Mayo a couple of weeks ago. That's a big swing, against a team like Derry, when you're tiring going into the last 10 minutes when they've four or five points to hold onto.
"They're battle hardened over the last two or three years. That was the cushion that they needed going into the last 10 minutes that they could soak up the pressure, and hit us on the break, which they did.
"Three weeks in a row, I felt our middle eight were a bit flat today. They've given an awful effort in the last couple of weeks.
"Ultimately we just didn't have it in the tank today. The prize for finishing top of your group was to have the week off and Derry definitely looked fresher than we did today.
"Going forward the learnings are that, if you're going to push on, you need to finish the top of the group to have the cushion behind you to be able to prepare properly.
"Time will tell whether we're going to be able to do that going forward."
