Galway edge out Clare in dead rubber

Galway did enough to wrap up their league campaign with a badly needed victory after successive losses as they edged out Clare by 0-25 to 1-20 in the Allianz Hurling League at Pearse Stadium.

This was just a championship warm-up for both sides as neither could qualify for knockout stages or be relegated, and it proved a useful workout for Henry Shefflin and Brian Lohan ahead of next month's championship start.

The sides were level nine times in the opening half but Galway finished strongly to lead by 0-14 to 0-12 at the interval and they held an edge for most of the second-half.

The sides exchanged points four times in the opening 13 minutes before efforts from Cathal Malone and Ryan Taylor edged Clare 0-06 to 0-04 in front by the end of the opening quarter.

Galway hit back with points from Conor Cooney and Cianan Fahy to level the match after 20 minutes, with Cooney leading the way for Galway and, inevitably, Tony Kelly, doing most of the scoring for Clare, with the two marksmen hitting half a dozen points each in the opening half.

The sides continued to swap points and were deadlocked at 0-10 apiece five minutes from the break before Galway pulled ahead with points from Conor Whelan, Tom Monaghan, Cathal Mannion and Cooney, before Taylor and Shane Meehan hit back to reduce the margin to two by half-time.

Clare goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan, who denied Whelan with a superb save after eleven minutes in the opening half, did likewise after the restart, but Galway extended their lead when Cathal Mannion got his fourth point and Cooney tacked on another from placed balls to lead by 0-17 to 0-12 but Clare hit back and after David Fitzgerald pointed, Kelly blasted home a penalty after Ian Galvin was fouled to cut the gap to a point