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Clare into All-Ireland quarter-finals after beating Roscommon

Clare reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals with Saturday's win over Roscommon  
Clare reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals with Saturday's win over Roscommon   Clare reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals with Saturday's win over Roscommon  

All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers round 4A: Clare 2-12 Roscommon 1-9

CLARE have reached the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals, where they will meet Kerry, after deservedly knocking out favourites Roscommon on Saturday afternoon.

The Rossies, on a recovery mission after being well beaten in the Connacht final, started the brighter and led by two points after four minutes as Ciaran Murtagh and Enda Smith converted. But from that point onwards, Clare took control of the half. Gary Brennan got them off the mark with a point before David Tubridy goaled after good work from Martin McMahon and Jamie Malone.

And although Murtagh and Sean Mullooly steadied the ship for Roscommon with further scores, they were really struggling to cope with the Banner’s pace and power as they hit an unanswered 1-3 - the second goal coming from Malone. The half-time score was 2-6 to 0-7 in favour of Colm Collins’ side.

Two minutes after the resumption, Roscommon got a boost with the sending-off of Clare’s Cathal O’Connor for a high tackle on Niall Daly, but it was the Munster men who kicked on again, with a point from Eoin Cleary.

The match then appeared to swing decisively in favour of Clare when Roscommon had Mullooly dismissed for a second yellow. However, Roscommon were handed another lifeline when Enda Smith hit the net to leave just three in it.

A Diarmuid Murtagh free then narrowed the gap to two, but Cleary notched two more points as Clare saw it out for a fully merited win.