Clare claimed the points with a surprise but deserved win over Derry at Ennis yesterday. One of the stars of the match, corner forward Martin Daly, crashed home the decisive goal at the close of the first half.

Derry, who were short of as number of players, had a lacklustre performance in the opening half. Points were exchanged between Ger Keane and Geoffrey McGonigal and Martin Daly added another for Clare in a fast-moving game. Further points from McGonigal and Anthony Tohill gave Derry a two-point advantage coming up to halftime.

Then Daly took the match by the scruff of the neck. Shrugging off a number of tackles in a powerful solo run, he beat Derry goalkeeper Shane O'Kane for the only goal of the match.

Derry upped their performance in the second half, but could not get the goal they sought. Tohill's point was matched by another from Daly. In the final 10 minutes, despite the Derry pressure, the Clare defence held out.

Towards the end, the match was stopped for several minutes due to a brawl among players from both sides. The referee issued six yellow cards during the game, while Derry's Seamus Downey was sent off.

Clare: J Hanrahan; A Malone, N Hawes, J Enright; B Keating, B Rouine, C Nagle; J Considine, D Russell (0-1); D Devine, G Quinlan, D O'Driscoll, G Keane (0-1), C Considine (0-1), M Daly (1-3). Subs: P McMahon for Quinlan, J Daly for Keane.

Derry: S O'Kane; S Donnelly, J McBride, E McKeever; S McIvor, G Coleman, C O'Loughlin; A Tohill (0-3), R Rocks; G Doyle, P Boylan, J Brolly; D Bateson, S Downey, G McGonigal (0-3).

Referee: A Mangan (Kerry).