CORK hurling team manager, Kieran Kingston, while obviously disappointed to lose to Limerick, by two points, took a lot of positives from the second-half display of his players.

Cork were second-best to the league holders in the opening 35 minutes, but the response thereafter was much better, with a brace of goals being registered.

“We stood back and admired Limerick in the first-half and found ourselves six, seven points down, and you cannot do that against a top team, like Limerick,” Kingston said.

“But we turned things around and went from seven points down to three points up, and that was pleasing,” he said.

“But we didn’t kick on and that was disappointing, but I’d be very happy with the character that we showed in the second-half.

“But we came here for a result and we didn’t get that and that was disappointing. As I said, we threw off the shackles there in the second-half and had a right go, but just came up short in the end,” Kingston said.

There was a lot of frustration among both sets of supporters over the performance of the referee and, with tongue in cheek, the Cork boss responded to that

“Yeah, guys probably have the stats. I think there were over 40 frees awarded today. I think we conceded 20-something of them and we’re the ‘softest team in Ireland’, as everybody knows,” Kingston said.

“For us to concede that number of frees, you have to question it. We have to look at ourselves first, obviously, but coming down the stretch, there was a throw-in that went straight to the Limerick guy and the ball is put over the bar; things like that went against us.

“I think the last five or six frees went against us, and we have to look at that and see if it was deserved; if so, so be it, but that’s frustrating when the game is in the melting pot.”

Getting a couple of goals on the board was something that was pleasing, he acknowledged, as there has been plenty of criticism in the past at the lack of them.

“Ya, we are getting a few in every game, which is great. That was one of the issues that’s been there over the years and has been well-documented and it’s something that we are working on,” Kingston said.

“It does not come off all the time but, look, goals win games — they didn’t today, frees won the game today — but it’s important for us to be in there and challenging for goals and so far, so good,” said Kingston.