This eagerly anticipated first round game went the way of the visitors after a tough encounter in Frank Sheehy Park on Sunday.

The first 5 minutes was tit for tat as both teams got to know each other before David Keane opened the scoring from a close range free for Listowel. The next 6 minutes was when the damage was done however as Ardfert hit 1-04 without reply as Emmets found it tough to get the grips with a lively forward unit lead by Paudie Carroll and Damien Wallace. The home side fought back through scores from Joe Joe Grimes and Keane but this was as got as it got for them as Ardfert poured it on for the final ten minutes of the half scoring five unanswered points with the aforementioned Carroll responsible for three of these.

Halftime score: Emmets 0-04 Ardfert 1-09.

Two minutes into the second half wing back Mike Moloney pushed Ardfert 9 points up and it looked like the fat lady was about to approach the microphone. But Jack Wall had other ideas as he latched on to the end of an excellent Emmets move involving Cormac Mulvihill and Noel Kennelly to calmly fire the ball past a helpless Nicky Sullivan to keep this game alive. David Keane put over a super point two minutes later before Kennelly got in on the act with two scores of his own in quick succession. Kennelly struck again for his third in between two points from John Egan and Damien Wallace but it wasn’t to be for Listowel as Bobby Regan hit 3 frees over the bar and and another from Wallace to seal the deal. Emmets will have a learned a lot from this game as they are a young team and to be fair left behind one or two goal chances which may have given them the momentum to push on but it just wasn’t their day.

Final score: Emmets 1-09 Ardfert 1-17

Emmets: K Hughes, J Moriarty, J Barry, D Leahy, D Broderick, T McCarthy, G McCarthy, JJ Grimes 0-01, C Mulvihill, J Wall 1-00, S Tarrant 0-01, B Sweeney, D Keane 0-03, S Gilbert, N Kennelly 0-04

Subs used: Eddie Browne, Ciaran Pierse, Niall Collin, Conor Cox, Jack Hartnett