GAELIC GAMES: Glum faces and shaking heads. Sometimes when you stand in the corridor outside the dressingrooms in Croke Park it's only the name stuck on the door that tells you that this is where the winners are hanging out.

Kilkenny tiptoed into yet another All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park yesterday, but clearly the manner of the performance bothered them. Having been rattled a little by Wexford, it would be understandable if Kilkenny had come to town yesterday hoping to post one of those notice-serving performances. Back in business!

Not to be though.

Limerick, unfancied and unheralded, did enough to earn respect and applause, and if they had been cannier or a little more accurate they might have caused one of the great upsets.

In one stretch in the second half they scored six points to Kilkenny's one and had everybody in the place leaning forward towards the edge of their seats. They subsided, but still had three late wides in quick succession before Kilkenny dutifully shut the game down.

"Thank God we're in the semi-final lads," said Brian Cody, "that's what today was all about. There's four teams left in the championship and we're one of them.

"Pleased with the result. The performance would have to be upped, obviously. Having said that, I would give great credit to Limerick."

So it went. For the want of a little experience Limerick lost their chance yesterday. Whether they caught Kilkenny at the start of a downslope remains to be seen, but certainly they caught the cats napping.

A string of first-half scores, many of them from Henry Shefflin dead balls, suggested Kilkenny were just going to put the game to bed early, yet there were always signs of life in Limerick, and when they flashed the last couple of points of the half over to be six behind a little light went on.

Things got better. Donie Ryan had a goal disallowed early in the second half for steps. Donie is a recidivist in this matter and Limerick took encouragement from the mere fact that he was allowed trespass so far. They started popping scores and wides form everywhere, and it took DJ Carey to snap Kilkenny out of it, with two points, the second from a retaken penalty.

As in the last month's Leinster final, Kilkenny finished a big game in Croke Park without a goal to their credit, and indeed any clear-cut chances to provoke some green-flag waving are hard to remember.

"I think the occasion got to the lads," said Joe McKenna forlornly. "I knew from last Sunday that half the team had never been to Croke Park, never mind play their before. We could have taken more scores, but that's where the bit of experience lets you down."

Limerick snatched a lot of wides through inexperience and anxiety. When Kilkenny look at the video they will frown at how easily and often Limerick snaffled possession.

"They are learning. They are coming, " said McKenna "If we can add a few players we can be serious. We told them in the second half to go out and throw caution to the wind and hurl."

Peter Barry, the Kilkenny captain, caught a bit of that new attitude in the second half

"It was tough going alright. We did well enough in the first half, we absorbed a lot. They have a good fighting spirit and they came within a point. We steadied then.

"You are coming up to play an All-Ireland quarter-final against a team who have been unlucky. We knew it would be tough."

If it was tough on Kilkenny getting through to play another day it was even tougher on Tipperary, one of those sides who have shown distinct improvements since the summer began. Yesterday they had Galway in the palm of their hands and needed only to crush them. Instead, they lost a six-point lead and bounced out of the championship.

The second half saw the best hurling of the afternoon with the sides furiously exchanging points in a 10-minute period which brought nine scores. The last of these was an Eoin Kelly free in the 54th minute which restored Tipperary to a six-point margin of comfort.

No Tipperary forward scored after that point, however, and their sole response to a rush of Galway scores was a gigantic effort from wing back Diarmuid Fitzgerald which inexplicably failed to inspire his comrades.

Galway added another 1-6 to their tally down the straight, and having come to Croke Park as championship outsiders finished the day looking as if they might be at last about to consummate their promise.

So the semi-final shakedown looks interesting. Clare, bustling and optimistic, face All-Ireland champions Cork. Galway, still remembering their coup in 2001 but still hurt from having their backsides kicked in Thurles last summer, get another crack at Kilkenny.

"Ye've had mixed fortunes with Galway in the past," Kilkenny captain Peter Barry was asked.

"Yeah," he said. And he smiled and then vanished. Enough said.

Mixed fortunes all around yesterday.

More to come.