Listowel Emmets        2-11     Spa      4-18

On a glorious evening in North Kerry, Emmets welcomed Spa Killarney in Division 2 of the County Senior League.  The visitors got off to the perfect start racing in to a four point lead, thanks to a brace from full forward Evan Cronin and one each from Michael Foley and the industrious Shane Cronin, who went on to have a fine game from wing back.  Conor Cox got Listowel on the board with a well taken free, before putting two between the sides after some good work from Noel Kennelly.  On 13 minutes, the hosts were level through corner forward Sam Tarrant and the impressive Cox, as suddenly the game sprung into life.  There were some good tussles all over the field with both sides putting in some important tackles in defence and both teams going close to raising the green flag,  but for Spa custodian James Devane and Keith Hughes of Emmets pulling off some good saves.  Craig Hickey put over a lovely score from his left, to put the visitors back in the driving seat and just two minutes later, they got their first goal of the evening through Hickey, who fisted an Evan Cronin pass to the net.  Emmets replied through a Conor Cox brace, but Spa had their tails between the legs now, as Cronin fisted over his own score followed by a peach of a point by Michael Foley.  On the verge of half-time, Cox put over his sixth score of the game to bring the deficit to three points at the break.   Half-time score:  Emmets 0-07 Spa 1-07.

Shane Cronin fired over the first score of the second half to stretch Spa's lead to four, before Emmets were given a lifeline through a well converted penalty from Conor Cox after Noel Kennelly was bought down in the square.  Dara Moynihan and Craig Hickey pushed Spa back in control on ten minutes, but Listowel were not done for just yet.  Kennelly added his own score almost from the re-start before Sam Tarrant sold his marker a beautiful dummy to keep the hosts in touch.  However, this was as good as it got for Emmets, as Spa rattled off 3-05 over the next ten minutes without reply, goals coming from Liam Kearney, Andrew Garnett and the impressive Evan Cronin, who was a thorn in the Listowel defence all day.  To be fair, the hosts never gave up and kept attacking Spa at every opportunity and perhaps were unlucky enough on some occasions too, but two late points from Cox and a nice individual goal by Tarrant were mere consolation scores, as the visitors ran out impressive winners on a scoreline of 2-11 to 4-18.

Emmets will be disappointed with how easy Spa got through for their second half goals, after what was a decent performance up until the final quarter. They must now dust themselves down as they welcome Annascaul to Frank Sheehy Park next Saturday evening in the first round of the Junior Championship which in itself will be no easy task. 

Final Score: Emmets 2-11 Spa 4-18