Erne Gaels 0-09 Teemore 0-07

William Shakespeare’s famous play 'The Comedy of Errors' would not be an unfair way of describing a truly turgid opening 30 minutes between two nervous teams who seemed more afraid of losing than winning.

And the scoreline at the break gives an indication of this real snooze fest where the home side led by 0-03 to 0-02-prompting one supporter to observe that he had “nearly fallen asleep standing up” as the two teams left the field for the break.

Mercifully things improved on the resumption with Teemore’s Sean McNally hitting three magnificent points from beyond the 45 metre line to push his team into a 0-05 to 0-03 lead by the 40th minute.

Belleek responded by throwing on Seamus Ryder and Aogan Kelm and both made significant contributions as the more experienced Gaels edged out their gritty youthful opponents with two late pointed frees from Ryder, who was their manager last year.

Teemore were in bonus territory and this battling display should be a big springboard for next year.

An ageing Erne Gaels team do not have that luxury and they may well be minus the talismanic Ultan Kelm who is Australia bound whenever Erne Gaels exit the championship.

No doubt Declan Bonner and Co. hope this will be after bridging a 43 year gap in a few weeks.

But, that looks a tad unlikely on the evidence of Saturday’s nervous display where they also hit eight wides from very scorable positions.

Ultan Kelm opened the scoring with a fine point from an acute angle after two wides and 10 minutes of cat and mouse fare.

Teemore were on top at midfield, but it took them five minutes to equalise through a Ronan McCaffrey free.

Dan McCann, who attracted a lot of attention from Teemore’s solid defence broke free for once and made it 0-02 to 0-1 in the 18th minute.

Oisin Kelm then hit a great point to extend the home side’s lead by two points in the 24th minute.

But this was equalled by an even better point from Teemore’s Oisin Murphy as the home side went in a point up at the break.

However, the increasingly confident Shamrocks hit the next three points on the trot through two from Sean McNally (two huge efforts) and Colm McNally to put them into a 0-05 to 0-03 lead.

Visibly stung, Belleek responded through a Shane Rooney free and a fine fisted effort from Ultan Kelm to tie matters in the 44th minute.

Another Rooney free regained the lead for the Gaels but Sean McNally cancelled this with another monster kick as a game broke out in the final quarter with the sides locked at 0-07 each 10 minutes from time.

The pace quickened as Ryder edged Erne Gaels into a one-point lead with a well struck free.

Teemore tried hard to respond but a great run by Aogan Kelm resulted in another free for Belleek which Ryder converted.

Teemore laid siege to the Gaels goal but time ran out and now Belleek meet familiar foes, Derrygonnelly, in next week’s county semi-final.