Limerick 2-11 Clare 1-8

Before an attendance of 2,240 at the Gaelic grounds in Limerick this evening, the home team overcame Clare in the opening round of the Munster minor hurling championship.

In what was a disappointing contest, two late goals helped Limerick to a merited win and a place in the semi-final on June 29.

Clare must now face the losers of next week’s clash of Tipperary and Waterford as they go in search of a semi-final spot. Tipperary had a first round bue while Waterford suffered a four point loss to Cork this evening

Playing with the aid of the wind, Clare had a dream start when Ian Murray goaled in the second minute but Limerick delivered a strong response in the form of three unanswered points in as many minutes to tie up the contest.

This early scoring burst suggested a high scoring tie but it wasn’t the case as scored were few and far between for the remainder of the half.

The sides were level at the end of the first quarter when the score was 1-1 to 0-4 and they were still level when the half time whistle sounded with the score now at 1-4 to 0-7.

The third quarter saw each side add just two points to their half time tallies and entering the final ten minutes there was just a point between the sides, substitute Aidan Kennedy having added two points to Clare’s tally.

Limerick substitute Josh Ryan struck a vital blow eight minutes from time when he blasted past Killian Nugent in the Clare goal to open a four point lead for the home side and another substitute, Cian Magner Flynn, finally killed off the Clare challenge, two minutes into ‘injury time’ with their second goal.

Clare; Killian Nugent (O’C. Mills); Cian McInerney (Inagh-Kilnamona), Damian O’Loughlin(Corofin), Keith White (Inagh-Kilnamona); Pa Mulready (Sixmilebridge) Cathal Nonan (Killanena), Tobias O’Meara (Killanena); Ross Hayes (Crusheen), Conor Tierney (St. Josephs) 0-1; Gary Cooney (O’Callaghans Mills), David Fitzgerald (Clonlara), Sean Kennedy (Kilmaley); Sean O’Loughlin (Kilmaley) 0-5 Captain, Kieran Galvin (Clonlara), Ian Murray (Bodyke) 1-0.

Subs; Aidan Kennedy (Kilmaley) 0-2 for Murray (40 minutes); Sean Costelloe (Wolfe tones) for McInerney (inj.,42 minutes); Tadhg Connellan (Eire Og) for Cooney (47 minutes);Michael Danagher (Cratloe) for Galvin (57 minutes)

Limerick; Mark O’Kelly; Brian Nash, William O’Meara, Brian Timmons; Josh Adams, Ciaran O’Connor 0-1, Finn Hourigan; Conor Nicholas, Cal McCarthy 0-1; Kyle Hayes (captain) 0-2, Darragh Carroll 0-1, Brian Ryan 0-1; Conor Boylan 0-2, Anthony Barrett, Mark O’Dwyer 0-3;

Subs; Cian Magner Flynn 1-0 for Barrett (half time); Josh Ryan 1-0 for O’Dwyer (44 minutes); David Woulfe for McCarthy (57 minutes); Conor Flahivve for Timmons (58 minutes) Dan Minihan for O’Connor (61 minutes)

Referee; Thomas Walsh, Waterford;

By Seamus Hayes