Kerry were made work hard for their victory over a battling Clare side in this ESB Munster MFC opening round tie at Ennis on Wednesday night. Kerry...1-10 Clare..0-6 Despite leading by 0-8 to 0-1 late in the first half, the Kingdom were pegged back following the resumption and didn't make victory safe until injury-time when man of the match Wayne Guthrie netted the only goal. Backed by the wind in the opening half, the visitors were utterly dominant and took a 0-8 to 0-2 lead into the break with their points coming from Paul Geary, Colm O'Shea, Daithi Casey, Mike Tim O'Sullivan and Barry-John Walsh. However, Clare emerged a different team for the start of the second half and had cut Kerry's lead to 0-9 to 0-6 by the 48th minute thanks to points from Sean Crotty, Cathal McInerney and Michael McDonagh. But that was as close as they got as Kerry put the issue beyond doubt with Guthrie's late strike. Kerry - B Kelly; P Reidy, B Shanahan, F Fitzgerald; J Lyne, P Crowley, M Hickey; W Guthrie 1-0, S Carroll; D Casey 0-1, C O'Shea 0-4, M T O'Sullivan 0-1; N O'Shea 0-1, B J Walsh 0-1, P Geaney 0-2. Subs - J O'Sullivan for Carroll, C Tobin for N O'Shea, BJ Keane for Geaney. Clare - J Joyce; S Cormican, D Ryan, D Gallery; L Markham, M Malone, D Nagle; C Ryan, P Looney; D O'Meara, M O'Donoghue, P McMahon; C McInerney 0-3, S Crotty 0-2, M McDonagh 0-1. Subs - B Whelan for O'Donoghue, F Hayes for O'Meara, J Curtin for Nagle. Ref - D Cahill (Tipperary). Tweet

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