An unanswered 1-4 late on was enough to see Milltown-Castlemaine defeat Craigbane by 1-7 to 1-6.

The Derry and Ulster champions looked to be on their way to the All-Ireland final despite playing all of the second half with 14-men after Brian Rainey was dismissed just two minutes after the restart for a straight red card offence.

Milltown Castlemaine looked sharper in the first as they held their opponents to just two points during the opening 30 minutes, but once Rainey was sent off, they rallied.

And when Lee Moore scored their goal midway through the second half to put them four points up, a place in the final was a distinct possibility.

However, the Kerry and Munster champions hit back immediately when Shane Murphy managed to squeeze his shot low past the on rushing Paul Sharkey.

The Kerry side were lifted by this and substitute Derek Twiss hit two points as Milltown/Castlemaine scored 1-4 without reply. Nonetheless, Ryan Moore hit an injury time point for Craigbane, but they could not manage an equaliser.

Milltown-Castlemaine: J Daly; J Blennerhassett, D Murphy, K McKenna; P Carroll, M Mangan, J O'Connor; M Burke, D Kelliher (0-1); J Flynn, S Murphy (1-0), G Wrenn (0-1); C Moriarty, C Kearins, I Twiss (0-3 2f). Subs: D Twiss for Kearins (43), B Delaney for Wrenn (45), P Wrenn for Mangan (55), K McKenna for I Twiss (59).

Craigbane: P Sharkey; D McLaughlin, F Crossan, M McGinty; B Rainey, R Gormley, C McLaughlin; B Gormley, K McElhinney; A Devine, A McLaughlin (0-2), C O'Kane (0-1); R Moore (0-1), L Moore (1-2) 1f), G Conwell. Subs: D Lowry for McElhinney (42), N Reilly for L Moore (54), R Moore for C McLaughlin.

Ref: D Brazil (Offaly) Tweet

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