Kildare; 2-12 Clare; 2-6Clare needed to trounce Kildare to have any chance of staying up, but instead exited in an unfortunate manner after having three men sent off in the second half at Newbridge. Full back Padraig Gallagher was sent off with Kildare's Martin Lynch following an incident in the early minutes of the second half. They were followed by Brian Considine and Neil Hawes in unrelated incidents later in the game.

Clare trailed by only three points at half-time, 2-2 to 1-8, thanks to a goal from a penalty by Russell Gibbons and a goal against the run of play by David Ryan. Lynch had scored the home side's goal with a fine shot.

Even after they were reduced to 14 men, Clare made a reasonable match of it. However they could not maintain the momentum and Stuart McKenzie-Smith effectively ended the game as a contest when he goaled in the 58th minute after two previous attempts had been thwarted by the Clare defence.

KILDARE: C Byrne; J Wiltshire, P Mullarkey, K Doyle; T Harris, D Hendy, A Rainbow; K Brennan, R Sweeney; E McCormack, K O'Dwyer (0-3, two frees), J Doyle; B Moylan (0-2), M Lynch (1-4, three frees), S McKenzie-Smith (1-1). Subs: P Winders for Brennan; E Murphy for Byrne; D Jordan (0-2) for McCormack; K Duane for Wiltshire; L Donlon for McKenzie-Smith.

CLARE: F Maguire; R Gibbons (1-0, pen), P Gallagher, D Lyne; N Meaney, N Hawes, P Smith; B Considine (0-1), S Meade (0-1); P O'Dwyer, P Hehir (0-1, free), M O'Shea; D O'Driscoll, C Mullen (0-1, free), D Ryan (1-2). Subs: J Mooney for O'Shea; B Rouine for Mullen.

Referee: S Doyle (Wexford)