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Clare 1-20 Wexford 0-12

Classy Clare today bounded into the final four of this year's All-Ireland SHC Championship with an excellent quarter-final display against a below-par Wexford at Croke Park.

The victory marked a fourth straight success for Anthony Daly's side, although the manager, who skippered Clare to All-Ireland glory in 1995 and 1997, coyly admitted afterwards that his outfit had little hope of progressing beyond the semi-finals.

Daly watched on as the Banner did most of their damage in the first half at a sparsely-populated headquarters. Alan Markham's 30th-minute goal was the ideal tonic before the break after Wexford had fought back from 0-2 to 0-6 down.

Five minutes earlier, the Model men, who shipped five goals to Clare in their April league meeting, had lost inspirational centre half-back Declan "Skippy" Ruth to injury and never really looked the same side after that blow.

They did open the scoring through Dessie Mythen inside two minutes, and two more points from play from Mythen in the opening half showed a level of consistency that his team mates unfortunately failed to match.

With Clare 0-10 to 0-6 in front, a long Davy Fitzgerald puck-out paved the way for Markham's goal, set up by a Barry Nugent handpass and fired to the bottom right corner of Damien Fitzhenry's goal, despite a partial block from the Wexford stopper.

Thirty seconds later, Seanie McMahon drove over a pride-laden point from his own half to confirm Clare's dominance and little changed until Offaly referee Brian Gavin's final whistle.

Of Clare's first half tally, Tony Griffin (0-3) led the way while Niall Gilligan, Tony Carmody, Seanie and Diarmuid McMahon all raised two white flags apiece.

Ruth, Adrian Fenlon and Rory Jacob (0-2, 2f) added overs for Wexford but they were too far behind for a comeback bid at the break, at 0-7 to 1-13 in arrears.

Wexford dual star Redmond Barry, the indirect replacement for Ruth, fired over a point, ten minutes into the second half, to keep the gap at nine points - 0-10 to 1-16, but Clare were motoring.

Three minutes later, a Michael Jordan handpass laid Eoin Quigley in for a goal chance but Clare stopper Davy Fitzgerald was equal to the effort, and closing overs from Gilligan (0-2, 1f), Diarmuid McMahon and Tony Carmody, with the final point of the game, saw Clare deservedly rule supreme.