Rebels lower Banner in Ennis

A scoring burst of 1-03 without reply just before the break in Ennis was crucial as Cork qualified for the Division One semi-finals with a 1-13 to 0-14 triumph over Clare.

The Rebels trailed Clare by 0-06 to 0-01 midway through the first half but Neil Ronan's 34th-minute goal, allied to points from Joe Deane (0-02) and Kieran Murphy, gave the visitors a 1-05 to 0-07 half-time lead.

Despite losing Alan Markham to a hamstring injury, Clare regained their advantage with Barry Nugent and Bernard Gaffney in scoring form.

Yet Cork went top of the Division 1A table with telling points from John Gardiner, Tom Kenny and Deane (0-02).

In what was a must-win game for Gerald McCarthy's Cork side, especially with the recent withdrawals from the panel of Wayne Sherlock, Mickey O'Connell and Killian Cronin, Ronan opened the scoring with a third-minute free.

But, incredibly, Cork supporters had to wait a further 29 minutes before their side could add to that early Ronan effort. Four frees from form man Gaffney and points from play from Brendan Bugler and Kevin Dilleen had Clare 0-06 to 0-01 in front.

Cork boss McCarthy threw Jerry O'Connor into the fray for his first appearance of the league, and the Newtownshandrum clubman, who came on for Timmy McCarthy, looked sharp.

After some early niggle, which saw Diarmuid O'Sullivan and Fergal Lynch clashing and Ronan Curran hit in the face, had subsided, Cork swiftly took the lead thanks to that haul of 1-03.

Pa Cronin fired over their first point from play, which was cancelled out at the other end by Declan O'Rourke.

Then Ronan broke through for the visitors' goal, which was neatly topped off by points from Deane, who struck a wonderful score off his left, Kieran Murphy and Deane again.

Murphy and Deane opened the second half's scoring before Clare upped the tempo with some excellent shooting from Nugent      (0-02) and Gaffney, who registered his fifth free in the 43rd-minute.

Ronan took his tally to 1-2 as Cork regain the lead at 1-08 to 0-10 but in what was a relatively poor quality game, the Rebels were never out of sight.

Nugent set up Fergal Lynch for a point and Gaffney fired over another free as Clare slipped back into the lead.

Cronin's second point of the afternoon brought the sides level for the fifth time, and although Niall Gilligan, with a kicked effort, and substitute Tony Carmody kept Clare ticking on the scoreboard, the Banner men were denied a place in the knock-out stages as Gardiner, Kenny and Deane, who took his tally to 0-05 with another point from play and a '65', sent over the clinching points for Cork.