Tony Kelly strikes and Clare survive

Clare 3-18 Dublin 0-19

About the only time Kelly had been able to express himself was just a couple of minutes before half-time when he ingeniously pop-slapped a ball on the touchline straight up into his hand and immediately swung it over the bar, but just like on St Patrick’s Day the Ballyea man had yet to get into his familiar majestic stride and fire points for fun on the run.

At the break Dublin were 0-13 to 1-8 up, and as Clare joint-manager Gerry O’Connor would admit afterwards, only for Andrew Fahy, his team would have been trailing by more; the Whitegate man made a couple of fine saves as well as launching in the free which Aaron Shanagher would catch at the far end and dispatch brilliantly past Conor Dooley.