Oulart-The Ballagh 0-20
Clara 2-11

Oulart-The Ballagh set up a Leinster Club SHC semi-final showdown with champions Kilcormac-Killoughey when edging a close battle against Clara at Nowlan Park yesterday.

Martin Storey's side put a sluggish start behind them to finish with two points to spare over the newly crowned Kilkenny champions.

Not even the concession of two second half goals in four minutes could knock them off their stride.

Clara made all the early running and raced into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead after eight minutes but the Model County outfit refused to panic and reversed the tide to go in at the break with a 0-8 to 0-7 lead.

Oulart extended their lead to four points early in the second half but they were pegged back by goals from Chris Bolger and James Nolan.

The visitors - runners-up in the last three provincial finals - showed all their experience to outscore their opponents by six points to nil in the time that remained to book their semi-final ticket.

Oulart-The Ballagh - B O'Connor; D Morton, K Rossiter, B Kehoe; C Goff, P Roche, L Prendergast; S Murphy, M Jacob; D Nolan, D Redmond (0-2), D Mythen (0-4); R Jacob (0-3, 1'65), G Sinnott (0-6), N Kirwan (0-4f). Subs: C O'Leary (0-1) for Nolan, P Murphy for Kirwan.

Clara - K Phelan; T Ryan, J Phelan, S O'Shea; N Prendergast, S Prendergast, D Langton; Lester Ryan (0-2), J Langton; C Phelan (0-2), K Hogan (0-4, 3f), Liam Ryan (0-3); A Murphy, J Nolan (1-0), C Prendergast. Subs: C Bolger (1-0) for Murphy, S Quinlan for C Prendergast, C O'Shea for Nolan.

Referee - J McGrath. Tweet

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