Stephen Hickey sent Clare into the final of the Tommy Murphy Cup after scoring five points from play at Parnell Park on Saturday afternoon to help his county beat Louth by 2-11 to 0-8.

Clare's half-forward division of Denis Russell, Hickey and Michael Ó Sé, had all pointed scores by the time Rory Donnelly found the net on 24 minutes.

Despite conceding two early scores after the break, which left proceedings at 1-8 to 0-1, Louth made a game of it in the second half. Darren Clarke's 39th-minute effort began a sequence of six points. That was as close as Louth got with Clare getting scores from Enda Coughlan, Hickey and Kilkee's David Russell. Clare added their second goal on 62 minutes through Conor Whelan before Louth's JP Rooney picked up a second yellow card.

In the other semi-final Sligo survived a late Antrim fightback to win by 1-11 to 1-10 in Dungannon on Saturday.

Martin McCarry brought Antrim to within a point when he scored an extra-time goal but Sligo managed to hold on.

SCORERS

CLARE: S Hickey 0-5, C Whelan 1-0, David Russell (Kilkee) 0-2, Denis Russell 0-1, M O'Shea 0-1, E Coughlan 0-1, R Donnelly 1-1. LOUTH: JP Rooney 0-3, one free, R Kelly 0-1, D Shevlin 0-1, free, P McGuigan 0-1; D Clarke 0-1, A Hoey 0-1, free.

SLIGO: G Maye 0-1, S Davey 0-1, P Taylor 1-7, D Sloyan 0-1, D McTiernan 0-1. ANTRIM: K Madden 0-7, S Kelly 0-3, M McCarrey 1-0.