The attacking brilliance of Mark McInerney and Eoin Cleary, scorers of 1-15 between them, helped secure Clare a third Allianz Football League Division 3 win on the trot as they defeated Limerick with nine points to spare, 1-21 to 1-12, under the lights at Mick Neville Park.
The Banner led by six at half time – 1-11 to 1-05 – with the first-half goals coming from Limerick captain Cillian Fahy and in-form Clare corner forward McInerney, before Paul Madden's promotion hopefuls outscored Limerick by 10 points to seven in the second half.
The hosts, who made five changes to the starting lineup that lost away to Sligo last week, were looking to bounce back from that second defeat in their Division 3 campaign – in what was their third of four homes in this year’s competition.
Clare made the short trip down the N18 and N21 with two victories so far – one more than Limerick - and came to Mick Neville Park looking to keep their promotion hopes alive, after overcoming Laois and Fermanagh previously.
That they did, and in style, with the damage coming in a second first half quarter that saw the men in saffron and blue outscore Limerick by seven points to two after they drew level in the 16th minute.
After a very slow start to the game, it was Limerick who opened the scoring with eight minutes on the clock – a well-taken goal from Treaty captain Cillian Fahy after the Dromcollogher-Broadford clubman was superbly played through by Danny Neville.
A point from Brendy Rouine followed quickly and Clare were level by the 16th minute when McInerney raised the green flag for Clare.
From here Clare scored five without response before Eliah O’Riordan stopped the rot for Jimmy Lee’s charges.
That two-point free from distance from the flawless O’Riordan a minute before the half time break was Limerick’s first points in 20 minutes - to make it a four-point game, 1-09 to 1-05.
Two late Clare scores from the impressive Eoin Cleary and corner back Alan Sweeney put six between the sides at the interval, 1-11 to 1-05 in favour of the Banner.
Clare scored the first three points after the restart as Cleary added his third and fourth of the game either side of Sweeney’s second of the evening.
The Banner had opened up a whopping 12-point lead midway through the second half as Cleary (two-pointer), Conor Meaney and McInerney (free), quickly made a distant memory of Danny Neville’s first point of the game, three minutes previously.
Credit to Limerick, the home side never gave up and narrowed the deficit to nine by the final whistle, but in truth Lee’s charges now face a relegation battle, given Laois had an impressive win over Westmeath in Portlaoise.
Clare now looked to keep their promotion hopes alive ahead of a home tie against Wexford in two weeks’ time – as they go in search of a fourth league win in-a-row.
Limerick: Jefferd Alfred; Oran Collins, Darren O’Doherty, Diarmuid Buckley; Oisín Moss, Killian Ryan, Tony McCarthy; Sean Clancy, Tommie Childs; Andew Meade, Cillian Fahy (capt) (1-01), Eliah O’ Riordan (0-05, 2tpf); Danny Neville (0-01), James Naughton, Peter Nash (0-03, 1f)
Subs: Paul Maher for Naughton (h-t), Colm McSweeney for O’Doherty (h-t), Jack McCarthy for Tommie Childs (46), Josh Dineen for Clancy (54), Shane Cross (0-02, 1f) for Meade (57)
Clare: Stephen Ryan; Alan Sweeney (0-02), Ronan Lanigan, Manus Doherty; Brendy Rouine (0-01), Conor Meaney (0-01), Ikem Ugwueru, Brian McNamara (0-01), Cillian Brennan; Daniel Walsh, Dermot Coughlan, Josh Vaughan; Mark McInerney (1-08, 2tp, 3f), Eoin Cleary (0-07, 1tp), Aaron Griffin
Subs: Cormac Murray (0-01) for Griffin (54 minutes), Shane Griffin for Vaughan (57), Jamie Stack for Walsh (65), Fionn Kelleher for Meaney (both 65), Michael Nash for Brennan (67)
Referee: Eoin Morrissey (Waterford)
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