Clare 0-13 Antrim 1-9  CLARE LEFT Casement Park yesterday with victory over Antrim and deserved to keep their spot at the top of the table. Clare were without six of their selected side and they also had Fergal Lynch red-carded in the 52nd minute.

The home side got off to a great start when Neil McManus rocketed a penalty to the Clare net in the second minute and the home side led 1-1 to 0-1 after seven minutes. Points by Colin Ryan, Fergal Lynch and Diarmuid McMahon had the teams level six minutes later.

Both sides traded points for the rest of the first half with the scores level on two other occasions.

Clare moved 0-9 to 1-3 ahead after 33 minutes but two late points by McManus, left Antrim trailing by the minimum, 0-9 to 1-5, at the break.

Two points apiece were hit over in the opening quarter hour of the second half but over the next 13 minutes only two points were scored, both for the Banner men by Seán Collins and Ryan. That was the end of Clare’s scoring while Paul Shiels and Colm McFall brought Antrim back to just one point adrift.

CLARE:P Brennan; P Vaughan, C Dillon, G O'Grady; B Bulger, J McInerney, P Donnellan; S Collins (0-1), A O'Brien; F Lynch (0-2), B Barrett, D McMahon (0-2); D Honan, A Markham, C Ryan (0-5, all frees). Subs:B Nugent (0-3) for Honan (15 mins), C O'Donovan for O'Brien (22 mins), M Flaherty for Markham (47 mins), M Murphy for Barrett (64 mins), E Glynn for Donnellan (69 mins).

ANTRIM:G McGhee; A Graffin, C Donnelly, M Scullion; M McAuley, K McKeegan, C Herron; P Shiels (0-3), PJ O'Connell; S McCrory, N McManus (1-3, 1-0 penalty), S McNaughton (0-1); B McFall, C McFall (0-1), C McAllister. Subs:A Smylie (0-1) for McAllister (half-time), T McCann for Scullion (47 mins), D Hamill for McCrory (53 mins), S McKeague for B McFall (61 mins), E McCloskey for O'Connell (68 mins).

Referee:B Kelly (Westmeath).