Teemore 0-10 Erne Gaels 1-14

Erne Gaels secured their place in the knockout stages of the Mannok Fermanagh SFC following Sunday’s seven point victory away to Teemore. The Beelleek side now face Derrygonnelly this Saturday with a semi-final spot the prize for the winner while the loser will enter the knockout phase in the quarter-finals.

“The main thing for us on Sunday was to win the game and get through to the next round which we did and to have done it with a decent performance was also pleasing,” said Erne Gaels manager Seamus Ryder.

Ryder feels that with a knockout place sealed, Erne Gaels can approach this weekend’s clash with the Harps with the pressure off to a degree.

“There is a big incentive to win the game because the less games you have to play the better but we are through to the knockout stages regardless of the result this Saturday so the pressure is off a bit.

“It is a free crack at it and it may be a chance to give a few lads a game who haven’t been playing as much as they are chomping at the bit and we have a few injuries that we don’t want to take chances with.”

Teemore now face a must win clash with Belnaleck if they are to stay in the championship and avoid the relegation play-off.

Manager Barry Owens feels that his side are getting punished by Division One sides for mistakes they would normally get away with in Division Two.

“We’re disappointed to lose as we thought we were competing well all over the field. We’re being punished for mistakes that we would normally get away with in the league and its a steep learning curve,” he said.

And he knows that it is going to be another difficult outing against Belnaleck.

“Belnaleck will be another tough game. They are physically very strong and have good forwards in the likes of Owens, McBrien and Quigley along with McAuley and McGurn who are very dangerous from midfield. Their defence is very tight with Cullen marshalling it,” added Owens.

The opening ten minutes of Sunday’s tie was evenly contested with the sides sharing the first four points.

Ronan McCaffrey registered the two points for Teemore while Bary McCann and the impressive Oisin Kelm answered for Erne Gaels, Kelm’s goalbound effort tipped over by retreating defender Rian McNally.

The visitors though took charge of proceedings after this with Oisin Kelm landing a good score before Ryan Lyons converted a mark. When Ultan Kelm then clipped over a free it stretched the lead out to three points although Eoin McManus kept Teemore in touch from a free.

Erne Gaels though continued to dictate the play and Ultan Kelm accounted for the next two points, one from play and one from a free, before he then picked up a knock and was replaced by Gregory McGloin.

However, with Tommy McCaffrey and Ryan Lyons adding on points, the Belleek outfit moved into a 0-09 to 0-03 lead by the 26th minute.

Teemore though clawed their way back into the game in the closing stages of the first half as they knocked over three points on the bounce.

Eoin McManus drilled over two frees, including a superb effort from the right, and Colm McNally also clipped over to leave it 0-09 to 0-06 at the interval.

Oisin Kelm notched his third point of the game on the restart and when Lyons tagged on a point from a free it pushed Erne Gaels lead back out to five.

However, Teemore continued to battle and another McManus free and a lovely McCaffrey point from play brought the gap back to three with 18 minutes left to play.

That though was as close as the home side could get as Erne Gaels replied with two Lyons frees and a score from Aoghan Kelm to push them six clear moving into the final ten minutes.

Sean McNally punched over a point for Teemore to keep them hanging in but the game was put out of their reach when Ben McCann slipped in Lyons and he finished to the back of the Teemore net to make it 1-14 to 0-09.

Teemore did have a late McManus point from a free but the outcome was already decided at that stage as Erne Gaels claimed the points on offer.