Ken Doherty marched into his second successive PowerHouse UK Championship final in York on Friday.

Watch Doherty clinch his place in the final

But battling Scot Drew Henry made the former world champion work hard for his 9-5 win in the opening semi-final of the �615,000 event.

Doherty, who will play world champion Peter Ebdon or 1999 UK title holder Mark Williams in Sunday's best of 19 frame final, resumed the session with a 6-2 lead.

I'll give it my all and hopefully take the cup back to Dublin this time. Ken Doherty

However, world number 22 Henry, playing in only his third ranking event semi-final, took the first three frames in just 36 minutes.

Doherty, who arrived in York last week without a win to his name this season, scored only 29 points.

Glaswegian Henry made breaks of 62, 93 and 43 to reduce his arrears to 6-5. But his bid for his first major final stalled at that point.

Doherty used his vast big match experience to full use and reeled off the next three frames.

The 33-year-old Dubliner, who has twice been a runner-up, will now hope to atone for his appearance in last year's final when he lost 10-1 to Ronnie O'Sullivan.

"I'm hoping it will be third time lucky for me - and if I get more than one frame I'll have done 100% better than last year.

I started well in the evening but the damage was done in the afternoon Drew Henry

"I'll give it my all and hopefully take the cup back to Dublin this time."

Doherty was very satisfied with his performance against Henry.

"At the start I didn't do much wrong - but 20 minutes later he had won three in a row," he said.

"Then there were two crucial frames - the first to make it 7-5 on the pink after I had potted a tremendous blue - and then 8-5 took the pressure off."

Henry knew he was fighting an uphill struggle, but took some pride from the way he perfomed to clamber back into the match.

He said: "I'm really disappointed to lose at this stage but it was a case of going out and having a go.

"I started well in the evening but the damage was done in the afternoon.

"After that it was just a case of trying to stay in it. I didn't want to lose before the interval and that worked for a while but it wasn't good enough in the end."