Clare had to fight all the way to beat Dublin by 0-20 to 2-13 in this semi-final at Croke Park.

The Banner County led from start to finish but Dublin showed tremendous fighting spirit to hang in there. However, in the end, it was the Munster County who booked a meeting with Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final.

The winners appeared to be on course for a landslide victory when leading by seven points (0-8 to 0-1) after 18 minutes but Dublin replied with six of the next seven scores to trail by just two at the break, 0-9 to 0-7.

The Banner boys hits a couple of early wides inside the first two minutes before David O'Halloran opened their account with a tidy point. Niall Arthur followed up with a pointed free to make it 0-2 to no score after five minutes.

On ten minutes, midfielder Tony Kelly stretched the gap with a sublime score and the Munster champions remained on top with only sporadic Dublin attacks to deal with. Dara Kane blazed over a fourth Clare point at the end of the first quarter.

Dean Flood opened the hosts' account from a free into the Hill 16 end but Kelly responded immediately with his second superb point. Free-scoring full forward Arthur added another within seconds and it was 0-7 to 0-1 when the impressive Banner No.14 found the target again.

Paudge Collins placed Keane for a goal chance but Dubs 'keeper Emmet Dillon made a fine save to deflect the sliothar over for a point and the Sky Blues rallied with quickfire scores from Emmet Ó'Conghaile and Ciaran Kilkenny.

In the 21st minute, Glen Whelan bagged the Metropolitans' third point in a row with one of the strikes of the match, reducing the gap to four points, 0-8 to 0-4. Flood (free) continued the stirring fightback but Shanahan steadied the pre-match favourites with a lovely point in the 25th minute. Kilkenny's reply for Dublin was instant.

With three minutes left in the first half, Cormac Costello brought the margin down to a manageable two points, 0-7 to 0-9, and Clare closed out an interesting opening period with three misses, bringing their wides tally for the first half to nine.

Arthur won and converted a free in the first minute of the second half and the same player then missed a simple free after Malone saw his tame goal effort saved by Dillon. But Arthur made amends by dropping over another free in the 35th minute: 0-11 to 0-7. Ten seconds later, Malone put five points between them with an accurate point from the right wing.

Dublin got their first goal in the 36th minute. Costello's sideline cut dropped into the hands of Clare goalie Ronan Taaffe but the normally-dependable custodian dropped the ball and Ó'Conghaile was on hand to blast the dropping sliothar to the net from a few feet. Midfielder Colm Galvin replied with a fantastic point for the Munster champions, who also had a further pointed free from Arthur to lead by 0-14 to 1-7 after 40 minutes.

Substitute John Hetherton popped over a free for Dublin but Arthur brilliantly clipped over his seventh point into The Hill. Flood took a nice Dublin point at the start of the fourth quarter and an excellent Kilkenny score - his third - within seconds made it a two-point game, 1-13 to 0-15.

Clare got the next two points, with substitute Aaron Cunningham announcing his arrival in style with an inspirational brace, but the game was back in the mixer when Costello swivelled to send a shot into the bottom right corner of Clare's net in the 53rd minute. There was now just a point between them: 2-10 to 0-17.

But Clare's reply was two points within seconds from Keane and Collins to stretch the margin to three. Arthur's 55th-minute point made it 0-20 to 2-10. Dublin were awarded a free when they probably would have preferred the advantage, with Flood popping the ball over the bar.

Hetherton floated over his second point in the last minute and substitute Robert Hardy saw an injury-time rasper fly inches over the bar as Clare held on for a narrow, one-point victory.

Clare: Ronan Taaffe; H Vaughan, P Flanagan, Shane Morey; Enda Boyce, Kevin Lynch, Stephen O'Halloran; Colm Galvin (0-1), Tony Kelly (0-2); Cathal Malone (0-1), Paudge Collins (0-1), Jamie Shanahan; David O'Halloran (0-1), Niall Arthur (0-8), Dara Keane (0-3). Subs: Aaron Cunningham (0-2), Alan Mulready,

Dublin: Emmet Dillon; Conor Murphy, Emmet McKenna, Sean McClelland; Cillian Moffat, Danny Sutcliffe, Ben Quinn; Darren Kelly, Brian McCarthy; Glen Whelan (0-1), Ciaran Kilkenny (0-3), Fergal Heavey; Cormac Costello (0-1), Emmet Ó'Conghaile (1-1), Dean Flood (0-4). Subs: Naoise Maguire, John Hetherton (0-2), Robert Hardy (0-1), Niall Ryan. Tweet

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