Tony Kelly brilliance drives ruthless Clare past Offaly

Tony Kelly showed his value to Clare as they were forced to dig deep before pulling away in the closing quarter to record a 4-20 to 0-16 win over Offaly in O'Connor Park on Sunday afternoon.

Back after his long lay-off with injury, Kelly was the main difference between the teams, though Ryan Taylor and sub Aaron Shanahan also made crucial interventions as Clare finally buried stiff Offaly resistance.

Kelly's class shone from the off, even if his eye was not fully in during the first half while his two goals, the second from a penalty, pushed Clare out of sight in the second half. Kelly ended up with 2-12, 1-05 from play.

He had a remarkable first half, causing terror in the Offaly defence in the opening quarter and he had four points on the board in 14 minutes.

He pointed from both sides of the field and Offaly were in trouble every time the ball went near him. He added three frees later in the half but also missed three placed balls that he would normally convert, two frees and a '65'.

Apart from Kelly's tour de force, Offaly did very well in the first half, easily playing their best hurling in what was a turbulent start to the league for them.

They competed well in every facet of play and made a lightening start with three quickfire points in two minutes. Clare hit back with three of their own in the next two minutes.

After this, the scoring rate ebbed away a bit but it still made for compelling viewing. Clare went 0-05 to 0-04 ahead after nine minutes but never threatened to open a gap in the first half.

The sides were level at 0-05 each and 0-06 apiece before Eoghan Cahill got two frees to put the home team 0-08 to 0-06 clear. Three frees from Kelly got Clare back in front and Cahill's 33rd-minute free made it 0-09 each at