After the excitement of the past few weeks, Tipperary football was brought back down to earth on Saturday evening when an excellent Clare team ran out easy winners of the Munster Minor Football Quarter Final.

From the start Tipperary struggled against a physically stronger Clare out fit and found themselves 6 points in arrears after the first 15 minutes before Jack Buckley got Tipperary off the mark with a free following a foul on the impressive Liam McCormack.

Tom Bourke produced a wonderful save in the 22nd minute and 2 minutes later Liam McCormack turned on the turbo and cut through the Clare defence before passing across the square for Toby Lambe to finish to the net.

In the 27th minute McCormack was at it again, swinging over a beauty from underneath the Old Stand to make it 0:08 to 1:02.

Game on or so it appeared but from the kick out, Clare again took control and popped over 3 points in as many minutes to take us in to the tea break at 0:11 to 1:02.

6 points down at half time was not an insurmountable lead but Tipperary needed a strong third quarter.

Unfortunately, the opposite happened and this extremely talented Clare side put the game to bed over the next 15 minutes, out-scoring Tipperary 1:09 to 0:01.

To their credit, Tipperary battled away to the end but the reality was they just couldn’t cope with the superior power and pace of the Banner men and when referee Jonathan Hayes signaled full stop the scoreboard read game 1:24 to 1:04.

Tipp scorers: T Lambe (1-0), J Buckley (0-2f), L McCormack(0-2).

Tipperary: Tom Bourke (JK Brackens), Sean O’Meara (Grangemockler/Ballyneale), James Morris (Clonmel Commercials), Kevin Cahalane (Lorrha/Dorrha), Darragh McVicker (Clonmel Og), Emmet Butler (Kilsheelan/Kilcash), Oisin Maher (Cahir), Toby Lambe (Holycross/Ballycahill, captain 1-0), Ciaran Condon (Cahir), Jack Nevin (JK Brackens), Jack Buckley (Cahir 0-2 frees), Sean Ryan (Upperchurch/Drombane), Eoin Craddock (Holycross/Ballycahill), Rory Collins (Moyle Rovers), Liam McCormack (Thurles Sarsfields 0-2).

Substitutes: Conor Neville (Kilsheelan/Kilcash) for Darragh McVicker (9 minutes), Conor O’Brien (Mullinahone) for Eoin Craddock (31 minutes), Tom Downey (Rockwell Rovers) for Toby Lambe (37 minutes), Anthony Keely (Clonmel Commercials) for Sean Ryan (41 minutes), Declan Nee (Clonmel Commercials) for James Morris (52 minutes).