Clare recorded their first ever victory over Tipperary in the Allianz National Hurling League in Semple Stadium with a fine display, which saw the Lohan brothers Brian and Frank yellow carded alongside Tipperary’s Micheal Webster.
The Bannermen led at the interval by 1-8 to 0-6 – the decisive goal coming from Andrew Quinn at the end of the first quarter after a slip by Tipp corner back Paul Curran.
Clare extended their lead to 1-12 to 0-6 ten minutes into the second half and it looked as though they were cruising to victory.
However, Tipperary fought back with a series of points from Eoin Kelly, Paul Kelly, substitute Darragh Egan and Paddy O’Brien to reduce the lead to just a goal with two minutes of normal time to go.
But, the cool heads of the Clare men won out with Sean McMahon and Tom Carmody ensuring that the honours crossed the Shannon with well-taken insurance points.
Clare boss Anthony Daly will be pleased with the manner in which his charges approached this game as they took the game to Tipp and created the scores with the minimum of fuss.
However, such was the poor nature of Tipperary’s challenge for much of the game that Clare should have been further out of sight.
Had it not been for the heroics of Eamon Corcoran and Declan Fanning, Tipperary would have been in deeper trouble.
Their lack of fire power was very evident - even the introduction of Tommy Dunne failed to ignite any real spark to the attack.
Clare will also point to the contribution of centre back Sean McMahon as being significant – he pointed four long range placed balls at crucial times and was a giant in defence for them.
Clare: D Fitzgerald, F Lohan, B Lohan, G O’Grady, A Markham, S McMahon 0-4, G Quinn, B O’Connell, C Lynch 0-1, C Plunkett 0-1, S McMahon, B Nugent, A Quinn 1-2, N Gilligan 0-5, T Carmody 0-2.
Subs: D O’Connell for B Nugent; B Quinn for B Lohan; B Lynch for F Lohan; D Clancy for B O’Connell.
Tipperary: B Cummins, P Curran, P Maher, H Moloney, D Fanning, D Kennedy, E Corcoran, C O’Mahoney, P Kelly 0-2, M O’Leary 0-1, J Devane 0-3, B Dunne, E Kelly 0-5, M Webster, P O’Brien 0-3.
Subs: D Fitzgerald for D Kennedy; T Dunne for M O’Leary; E Buckley for Curran; D Egan 0-1 for B Dunne; E Sweeney for Webster.
Referee: D Kirwin (Cork)
