KEITH Ricken’s Cork minor footballers are on a run of five championship wins in succession and are looking to continue that form against Derry this Saturday (4pm) in the All-Ireland MFC semi-final at Parnell Park.

The Leesiders are aiming to reach their first minor decider since 2019 when Cork won the All-Ireland.

Comfortable victories over Clare, Kerry (in the Munster round-robin), Waterford and Meath showed this young Cork team’s quality. As did their Munster final triumph after extra time against Kerry in a tight encounter.

This weekend they face a team that has already lost a championship match this season. Derry fell short to Tyrone in the Ulster final (2-16 to 1-12) and were in close battles against Down (1-12 to 1-11) and Donegal (0-10 to 0-9).

In the All-Ireland quarter-final, they swatted Connacht champions Roscommon aside, winning 2-12 to 1-9 in Kingspan Breffni.

Don Mulholland (1-12) and Neil McDermott (0-8) are key free-takers for the Oak Leaf county but Cork really need to keep an eye on Rocco Devlin. He’s hit 1-5 from play, 1-2 coming in the quarter-final.

Gabriel Gormley (1-4), Pól McPeake (0-6), Tomás Devlin, Michael Doherty, Lorcan Higgins (0-5 each), Tadhg Bradley and Conall Campbell (0-3 each) are others that are capable of troubling the Rebels.

Cork’s top scorer may be goalkeeper Rory Twohig (0-17) but Ben Hegarty (0-14), Joe Miskella (2-8), Alex O’Herlihy, Tom Whooley (1-10 each), Eoghan Ahern (2-7) and Kieran O’Shea (1-5) are standout players that will cause Derry problems.

The fact that Cork have an average winning margin of 12 points, compared to Derry’s two, might make Ricken’s team slight favourites.

Derry may point to playing higher-level opposition in Ulster but Cork came up against historically good football counties Kerry and Meath and won by ten and 13 points respectively.

Cork have shown great form in this year’s championship. If they perform to their capabilities, an All-Ireland final could be on the horizon.