Kilcummin 1-9 Lissycasey 1-5: Though dominant for the most part, Kerry side Kilcummin had to withstand a short second-half fightback from Lissycasey before going on to win at Cusack Park, Ennis, yesterday.
The Kerry men prevailed despite losing David Brosnan to a second yellow card with five minutes remaining.
A 1-3 to 0-0 lead after 15 minutes left the home side with a mountain to climb. David Brosnan produced the 14th-minute goal and it was eight minutes later before Clare hurler Colin Lynch kicked Lissycasey's first point of the afternoon.
A penalty awarded to Lissycasey just before half-time and taken by Cathal McMahon was saved by goalkeeper Brendan Kealy to leave the score at 1-4 to 0-2 at half-time.
Daniel O'Leary, Ronan O'Connor and DJ Fleming added early second-half points to open up a seven-point Kilcummin lead, but a sudden resurgence from the Claremen turned the complexion of the tie for a period.
Tadhg Kelly pointed before Danny Lynch grabbed a goal and a further two points from Michael Slowey and Martin Daly had the scoreboard reading 1-7 to 1-5 with 13 minutes to go.
Kilcummin steadied the ship with points from Seán B O'Doherty and David Brosnan to secure their victory.
KILCUMMIN: B Kealy; T Brosnan, R O'Connor (0-1), K Bruton; K O'Donoghue, M McCarthy (capt), D Riordan; K Gorman, S McSweeney; D O'Leary (0-1), C Lenihan, SB O'Doherty (0-3); D Brosnan (1-1), P O'Donoghue, DJ Fleming (0-3, frees). Subs: M O'Connor for Lenihan (25 mins), P Kelly for O'Leary (36 mins), B Brosnan for P O'Donoghue (47 mins), T Cooper for K O'Donoghue (51 mins), J O'Keeffe for Bruton (58 mins).
LISSYCASEY: J Hayes; M Melican, S Hill, C McMahon; C Hill, C Lynch (0-1), J Kelly (capt); D Doohan, A Kelly; A Nagle, D Lynch (1-0), S Hayes; P Nagle, M Daly (0-1, free), M Slowey (0-2). Subs: T Kelly (0-1)for S Hayes (half-time), F Hayes for A Nagle (44 mins), D McMahon for Daly (53 mins).
Referee: M Meade(Limerick).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)