Easy day for Clare in capital

Clare 4-21 Dublin 1-16: Many visiting fans left Parnell Park on Saturday believing they saw the goal that never was, but when the green flag was raised beside Davy Fitzgerald in the 50th minute it brought an end to his record-breaking run of intercounty championship hurling games without conceding a goal.

It was the first time the Clare goalkeeper was beaten in six games, but whether Liam Ryan's effort, after a goalmouth scramble, crossed the line was the only contentious subject in the game at that stage.

Dublin can, however, take a few positives from the game as Tommy Naughton's men played some decent hurling and matched Clare's points-scoring for much of the game.

The home team, already without injured captain Philip Brennan, lost influential forward Alan McCrabbe with a bruised knee after 25 minutes.

Dublin manager Naughton conceded that his team had erred under some pressure from the Clare forwards. "That's the scoreline and you have to accept that and we were punished every time we made a mistake. At this level, that's why Clare are one of the top teams in the country."

Dublin found the Clare full forward line too hard to handle, with Alan Markham's two first-half goals helping Clare to a 3-11 to 0-12 lead.

With Tony Carmody's pace at centre forward creating problems and Dublin leaving too much space for their opposition all over the park, Clare began to make their pressure tell by the second quarter.

Nonetheless their second goal, preceded by points by Colin Lynch and Carmody, was something of a gift after Dublin had given away possession near the touchline.

Markham delivered Clare's third goal on the half hour and despite scores from David Curtin and David Sweeney, Clare finished the half with a free from Seanie McMahon.

Clare kicked off the second half with another effort from McMahon before Ryan's goal gave Dublin some consolation and left eight points between the sides.Dublin's concluded their scoring with efforts from Curtin and Johnny McCaffrey before Clare finally closed out the game with a Niall Gilligan goal on 63 minutes.

Anthony Daly believed that Dublin were better than the scoreline suggested. "We didn't play great and the scoreline flattered us. We had two injuries and they're good players and we missed them but the two lads that came in did reasonably well."

CLARE: D Fitzgerald; G O'Grady, B Lohan, F Lohan; D Hoey, S McMahon (0-4, three frees, one 65), C Forde; T Griffin (0-3), C Lynch (0-1); D McMahon (0-1), T Carmody (0-5), J Clancy (0-1); D O'Rourke, A Markham (2-0), N Gilligan (2-5, four frees). Subs: B Nugent (0-1) for O'Rourke (47 mins), D Quinn for Clancy (63 mins), C Plunkett for S McMahon (67 mins), D O'Connell for Carmody (67 mins), P Bohan for Lynch (67 mins).

DUBLIN: G Maguire; A de Paor, K Ryan, T Brady; M Carton, R Fallon, Derek O'Reilly; D Sweeney (0-2), S McDonnell (0-1); J McCaffrey (0-2), L Ryan (1-2 ), D Curtin (0-5, five frees); J Kelly, K Flynn (0-1), A McCrabbe. Subs: K Dunne (0-2) for McCrabbe (25 mins), K O'Reilly (0-1) for J Kelly (half-time), E Moran for de Paor (49 mins), P O'Driscoll for Mc Donnell (56 mins), P Carton for Dunne (68 mins).

Referee: T McIntyre (Antrim).