Tipperary's Dylan Slevin has won the all Ireland battle over Limerick's Willie O'Connor to advance to the second round at the PDC World Championships.
A relieved Slevin admitted afterwards that he was "still shaking" after defeating his fellow countryman 3-1 in a nervy encounter at the All Pally.
He will now go on to play Dimitri van den Bergh in the next round, as O'Connor crashed out at the first hurdle for the first time since 2018.
O'Connor will be kicking himself at losing the first two sets in last leg deciders which gave Slevin a major foothold in a tight game in which both players were averaging about the same.
It was only in the third set that O'Connor came to life as he won it 3-1 and looked well on his way to winning the fourth too when he opened up a 2-0 lead.
However Slevin managed to keep the set alive by breaking O'Connor in the crucial third leg of that set and then held his own throw to bring it to a final leg.
With O'Connor struggling to hit big, Slevin was first to a double in that last leg, which he eventually took out on double 5.
Averaging 86.35 to O'Connor's 85.92 and hitting seven 180s, Slevin said afterwards that the win meant the world to him.
He said: "I never want to have to go through that again, playing Willie, or any of the other Irish lads like Brendan [Dolan] or Mickey [Mansell].
"That was the hardest game of my life. I'm just happy to be through."
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