Kerry survived a scare at Killarney, beating IT Tralee by 1-20 to 1-15.

With Cork awaiting the winners of this game at the semi-final stage next weekend, the plucky students almost put the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons.

But, in the end, Kingdom boss John Meyler booked his much-anticipated reunion with old clubmate Jimmy Barry-Murphy as his charges reeled off seven of the last eight scores to advance.

Shane Brick bagged 0-12 for the winners, for whom Shane Nolan and Darragh O'Connell were also on target late on.

But it was far from a formality as Tralee IT led by 1-10 to 1-9 at half time, Fergus Kennedy's point on the stroke of the break separating the sides when the short whistle sounded.

Meyler's men dominated the early exchanges to lead by 1-4 to 0-1 after eleven minutes.

Midfielder Darragh O'Connell struck a magnificent goal from 40 yards for the Kingdom, who started purposefully with points from the sticks of O'Connell, John Egan and Shane Brick (2).

But IT Tralee battled back to lead by 1-9 to 1-8 just before half time and the sides got one more score each before the interval.

Eamonn Brosnan had hit four successive points and a 22nd minute goal to bring the students right back into it. Centre back Mark Deegan also clipped over three lovely points for Tralee IT in the opening period.

It was 1-12 each before Matt Lynch's second point put the students back in front with 18 minutes left. But the losers managed only two more points from there while Kerry added eight. Tweet

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