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and Enda McKenna swapped points straight fater the goal before Grimes again and Grufferty, this time from play, tied it up at 0-4 to 1-1.

But Conor McCullough and Callan nudged Kevin’s two clear again before Callan drilled home goal number two on 15 minutes.

Emmets hung in against the strong breeze, but the gap swelled to six points at one stage as Callan converted a brace of frees and fired another goal chance over the bar.

Conor and Damien Grimes limited the damage with a point apiece, but with five minutes left in the half, Kevin’s led by 2-6 to 0-6.

Mark Noone and Conor Grimes pulled it back to four before the interval, and after all the calamity of the opening quarter, that was probably the best they could have hoped for.

It certainly could have been worse as Callan’s hat-trick chance drifted over the bar with the ‘keeper beaten, while earlier the Kevin’s had quite loud penalty claims waved away.

Progress was slow for Emmets after the break. Grufferty, Noone and Grimes all pointed inside 10 minutes, but a couple of Callan frees ensured Kevin’s lead was only cut by one, 2-8 to 0-11.

But Emmets were starting to dominate and Kevin’s were starting to retreat.

At one stage everyone bar David Bracken and Sean Byrne were camped in the St Kevin’s half of the field and while they defended manfully, Emmets eventually drew level.

It took the best part of 20 minutes, but four unanswered points from Noone, Ruairi O’Neill, Damien Grimes and Gordon Healy levelled it all up at 0-14 to 2-8.

All the momentum seemed to be with Emmets, but as soon as they drew level, Kevin’s started to commit men forward again.

In fact despite playing against the breeze it looked like there would be only one winner, but when Callan and Boylan missed the target in quick succession it looked like a replay was on the cards.

But another mazy run by Callan carved out space for Clarke to exploit and he squeezed over an amazing winner.

There was more stoppage time to negotiate, but Emmets couldn’t even carve out a chance, which pretty much summed up a miserable afternoon.

The bookies chalked St Kevin’s up as rank outsiders in a twohorse race beforehand, and they celebrated like only underdogs can when Declan Dunne finally brought proceedings to a close.

With what looked every man, woman and child in Phillipstown soaking up the occasion, it took stewards some time to persuade them to head over to the sideline for the presentation.

When they eventually did, Cian Callan was a worthy winner of the man-of-the-match award and veteran captain Boylan thanked everyone he could think of.

He forgot one, but it was the only blip on a glorious day for the Kevin’s faithful. ST KEVIN’S: Conor Callan; Barry Byrne, Ian Wogan, Enda McKenna 0-1; Liam Boylan, Patrick Duff, Aaron Kahn; Andrew Campbell, Seanie Crosbie; Conor McCullough 0-1, Aidan Craven, Aaron Roche; Lee Crosbie, Paul Duff, Cian Callan 2-6 (4f). Subs: Darren McMullen for A Craven (48), Patrick Clarke 0-1 for Paul Duff (54).

GLEN EMMETS: Conor Kelly; Tom Grimes, Andrew Mooney, Keith Farnan; Niall Hackett, Stephen Healy, Ronan Carr; Mark Garvey, Gordon Healy 0-1; Ronan Grufferty 0-4 (2f), Ruairi O’Neill, David Bracken; Mark Noone 0-2, Conor Grimes 0-5 (2f), Damien Grimes 0-2. Subs: Jamie farnan for Hackett (42), Keith Boylan for M Garvey (45), Evan English for T Grimes (60+).

REFEREE: Declan Dunne.