Clare just fall short with final in sight

All-Ireland SHC Semi-final: Cork 0-16, Clare 0-15 Presumably if you had told Anthony Daly and his Clare team that they could lead the All-Ireland champions by a point with just three minutes left on the clock, they would have taken such a scenario confident that they could defend the slim advantage with the finishing tape looming so closely.

Sadly for the eternal warriors, they just failed to hold out and took the curtain for this year's championship after a hugely commendable performance.

Still they'll be chewing over the regrets for quite a while having established a great position against Cork and only narrowly falling short of a major surprise.

That then was the heart-warming story of how Daly's unfancied amalgam of youth and experience nearly pulled off the shock of a largely predictable Guinness All-Ireland hurling championship to date.

The harder, newsier story, however, was the manner in which Cork took one gaping look over the precipice and swayed around before deciding they would fight like dogs to defend their All-Ireland from going the same way as their previous one five years ago, when they were beaten by an ageing Offaly side in a major upset.

It was Cork's first real chase of the summer. They led for only six minutes in the first half and for just three minutes at the end of the match. But that's what matters and the champions now progress to a third successive All-Ireland final, their first such sequence in over 20 years.

But what a struggle! Forget all the patronising stuff about Clare's great heart and their proud veterans and how they would give Cork a right good rattle. This was serious stuff.

For most of the third quarter they methodically and incrementally stretched a two-point interval lead until it stood at six.

The match had moved on from how well Clare were going to what on earth would Cork do because by the 49th minute they were trailing by 0-13 to 0-7 and had managed just one point in 23 minutes.

Clare were buzzing and wearing their disadvantages of pace and mobility as lightly as they had done in the quarter-final against Wexford. Their accuracy was stunning in the early second half, the very stage at which cold half-time analysis had suggested Cork would tip the pedal and regain control.

The symptoms of the champions' malaise weren't hard to identify. They were uncomfortable in defence, struggling against the big Clare attack as they had against the behemoths Tipperary wheeled out for the second half of the Munster final.

Between them Tony Carmody and Tony Griffin scored as much (the preponderance of them gems) from play as the entire starting Cork attack.

Centrefield offered an early lifeline to Cork because there were signs Tom Kenny and Jerry O'Connor would do damage if Clare couldn't blockade the middle against those familiar, rampaging solo runs. Kenny finished one such effort poorly in the 22nd minute although Davy Fitzgerald had to scramble to make the save.

Colin Lynch and Brian O'Connell were hardworking and successful at winning ball but exposed whenever their opposite numbers got motoring.

Unfortunately for him and all his good work, Lynch also had severe radar malfunction and hit five wides, including the team's last chance to salvage a draw.

Clare's defence was razor sharp. Seán McMahon did the 'who's yo daddy?' routine and clattered into Niall McCarthy early before dominating his patch until the late fade-out. Brian Lohan, meanwhile, took the criticisms of his season and the suggestion he was no longer up to this sort of thing and hurled them the length of Croke Park.

After one 28th-minute dispossession and towering clearance the Clare crowd in the attendance of over 50,000 rose to the great defender and the years rolled back.

True, Brian Corcoran is a full forward to Lohan's taste in that he isn't a flier and uses strength and skill to make his impact but as recently as the Waterford quarter-final, the veteran showed how influential he is in the Cork set-up.

Yesterday he struggled to match his inspired marker and in the 50th minute John Allen made the sort of call good managers have to make in big matches. He took off some big names.

Corcoran was replaced by Neil Ronan, who had played well in the Munster final after a similar substitution caused by Corcoran's arm injury.

Ronan Curran, All Star centre back of the past two years, once more found himself in difficulties and was also called ashore, with Wayne Sherlock slotting into the defence as part of a shuffle that brought John Gardiner to centre back.

Gardiner has been torching bonfires all season and yet again yesterday he held steady as Cork's prospects and title were circling the plughole.

Moving to centre back he shored up the half-back line and further underlined his claims for the Hurler of the Year accolade.

Beside him Seán Óg Ó hAilpín responded and after a subdued first half that nonetheless had doubled his championship tally with another point to go with his maiden score last month, the captain was also reinvigorated for the endgame.

It was as if the sight of these changes energised Cork because the incoming players had hardly time to make any impact when the margin was down to three.

Suddenly Clare couldn't get any purchase on the defence they'd been pillaging and could score only two points in the entire final quarter.

Those scores on each occasion pushed the lead to two - one of those from Andrew Quinn, a late replacement for the injured Barry Nugent, appeared to save him from a substitution already announced by the stadium public address.

But the momentum was against Clare. Brian Lohan was being more troubled by Joe Deane's switch to the square but to be fair to the Clare full backs, they were under constant, unremitting pressure for the last 10 minutes.

Cork probably should have won by more with the opportunities created but they did enough to wrestle the lead away from Clare.

Ben O'Connor had a goal available when cutting the margin to a point, 0-14 to 0-15, in the 61st minute, and, in general, better use could have been made of the possession now flowing.

In the 68th minute Niall McCarthy equalised and a minute later Jerry O'Connor powered through the tiring cover for the winner. Hard on Clare but them's the breaks.

CORK: 1. D Cusack; 2. P Mulcahy, 3. D O'Sullivan, 4. B Murphy; 5. J Gardiner (0-2, one free), 6. R Curran, 7. S Ó hAilpín (capt; 0-1); 8. T Kenny, 9. J O'Connor (0-2); 10. K Murphy (Sarsfields; 0-1), 11. N McCarthy (0-1), 12. T McCarthy (0-1); 13. B O'Connor (0-4, two frees, one sideline), 14. B Corcoran, 15. J Deane (0-3). Subs: 21. K Murphy (Érin's Own) for T McCarthy (half-time), 20. N Ronan (0-1) for Corcoran (50 mins), 18. W Sherlock for Curran (50 mins).

CLARE: 1. D Fitzgerald; 4. G O'Grady, 3. D O'Sullivan, 2. F Lohan; 5. D Hoey, 6. S McMahon (0-1, '65), 7. G Quinn; 8. B O'Connell (0-1), 9. C Lynch; 10. D McMahon, 11. T Carmody (0-4), 12. A Markham; 23. A Quinn (0-2), 14. N Gilligan (0-4, all frees), 15. T Griffin (0-3). Subs: 27. J Clancy for O'Connell (63 mins), 26. D O'Rourke for A Quinn (70 mins).

Referee: D Murphy (Wexford).