Louth 1-16 Clare 0-13
Colin Kelly claimed his first victory as Louth manager after seeing his side come from behind to dispatch of Clare at the Gaelic Grounds in Drogheda yesterday.
Louth looked to be heading for a second straight league defeat when they trailed by three points after 43 minutes. However, they would hold Colm Collins’ visitors scoreless for the remaining 27 minutes as a flurry of late scores saw them run out easy winners in the end.
Despite trailing by three points early on after a brace of scores each from David Tubridy and Shane Hickey inside the opening nine minutes, Louth led 1-5 to 0-5 in the 20th minute when Adrian Reid rifled to the net.
Despite that setback, Clare finished the half strongly with Shane McGrath on target twice, including in stoppage time, to give his side a 0-9 to 1-5 lead at the break.
Substitute Derek Maguire’s point seconds after the restart briefly had the home side level but two further points apiece from McGrath and Tubridy ensured Clare were quickly back in the driving seat.
However, with their defence on top and Burns and Declan Byrne both contributing some fantastic scores, Louth soon turned things around to run out easy winners.
LOUTH: N Gallagher; K Toner, P Reilly, P Rath; D Crilly, D Finnegan, D O'Hanlon; B Duffy, E O'Connor; A Reid (1-1), D O'Connor, D Byrne (0-2, one free); R Burns (0-5, two frees), C Grimes (0-3), C Judge (0-3, one free). Subs: R Moore for E O'Connor (33 mins), D Maguire (0-1) for D O'Connor (h-t), A Williams for D Crilly (40 mins), J Stewart for D O'Hanlon (44 mins), S O'Hanlon (0-1) for A Reid (bc, 67 mins).
CLARE: J Hayes; S Collins; D Ryan, M McMahon; C Russell, G Kelly, J Malone; G Brennan, C O'Connor; S Collins, S Hickey (0-3), S McGrath (0-4); D Tubridy (0-6, two frees), S Brennan, P Burke. Subs: P Collins for C Russell (bc, 40 mins), K Sexton for C O'Connor (41 mins), C Dunning for S Collins (62 mins), M O'Leary for P Burke (67 mins), S Haugh for S Hickey (69 mins).
Referee: M McNally (Monaghan).
