Clare 0-12 Carlow 0-10:CLARE WERE worthy winners at Dr Cullen Park yesterday. The home side made the better start, however, with points from Brian Murphy and Eric McCormack.

Clare pushed in the second half when points from David Russell saw them get in front and they were 0-10 to 0-7 up on the hour before going on for victory.

CLARE: J Hayes; M McMahon, C Whelan, T Madigan; L Markham, K Dilleen, G Kelly; P O’Dwyer, F O’Dea (0-1); D Russell (0-2), P Reidy, S Collins (0-1); M O’Shea (0-1), G Brennan, D Tubridy (0-5, 0-4 frees). Subs: C O’Connor (0-1) for O’Dwyer (27 mins), S Monaghan (0-1) for Reidy (35 mins), R Donnelly for Collins (65 mins).

CARLOW: J Brennan; K Nolan, L Murphy, S Myers; S Redmond, J Hayden, A Curran; R Walker, D Byrne; E McCormack (0-3, two frees, one 45), J Murphy (0-1), S Curry; B Murphy (0-1), M Carpenter (0-3), JJ Smith (0-1, free). Subs: D St Leger for Curry (25 mins), J Kavanagh (0-1) for B Murphy (41 mins), P Cashin for Curran (48 mins), W Minchin for D Byrne (48 mins, yellow), D Phelan for Minchin (65 mins).

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).