Limerick  1-11 Leitrim 1-10The final whistle was greeted with relief by Limerick as they held out by the narrowest of margins against Leitrim in an entertaining game played at wintry Clone yesterday.

Leitrim started brightly scoring three points to Limerick's one by the sixth minute but the visitors were ahead 0-5 to 0-3 midway through the half.

Leitrim kept in touch with pointed frees by Ollie Maguire and one from play by Michael Duignan, but the visitors finished the half strongly with two Stephen Kelly points to edge ahead 0-7 to 0-6 at the interval.

Limerick scored at the start of the second half when Stephen Kelly's effort was palmed away by Gareth Phelan and the rebound was fired to the net by Brian Begley. Four minutes later Leitrim's Seamus Quinn was fouled in the square and substitute Padraig McLoughlin converted the penalty. Limerick again rose to the challenge and scored three points without reply to stay ahead going into the final minutes.

Jason Stokes's dismissal was a for Limerick and as Leitrim clawed their way back, scoring three points without reply, a draw looked likely until the referee called an end to the proceedings.

LIMERICK: S O'Donnell; M O'Riordan; P Windle; T Stack; S Lavin (0-1); S Lucey; P Browne; J Quane; J Stokes (0-1); S Kelly (0-2, 1 free); J Murphy (0-3); C Mullane; J Meskill; B Begley (1-1); M Reidy (0-2 1 free). Subs: J Galvin for B Begley; P Ahern for J Meskill; P O'Dea for P Browne; C O'Grady (0-1) for P Ahern; M Roberts for J Murphy.

LEITRIM: G Phelan; A McGourty; A Charles; M McGuinness; N Gilbane; J Phelan; S Foley; S Quinn; C Carroll (0-1), C Regan; S Canning (0-1); B Brennan; M Duignan (0-1), O McGuire (0-6) D Brennan. Subs: J McKeon for A McGourty, P McLoughlin (1-1), D Reynolds for S Foley, J Holohan for M Duignan.

Referee: J Lynch (Fermanagh).