LIMERICK manager John Kiely felt that his side should have defended better for the late sideline cut that led to Cork scoring the winning point.

From the cut, Conor Lehane found Patrick Horgan, who did well to send possession towards Shane Kingston and he fired over for the 2-17 to 0-22 victory.

“We put ourselves in a position to win the game,” he said.

“We were well in it there with a couple of minutes to go. We would be disappointed with the way we defended the last sideline.

“Cork shouldn't have been able to get off possession as easily as they did in that situation. But listen, that is something we are going to have to learn from.”

Overall, there were a few disappointing factors from the point of the Shannonsiders’ manager but nothing to panic over.

“I don't know was there a big issue,” he said, “we were level up to the last puck of the game, so we were there or thereabouts.

“It was a very tight game. I think we turned over a lot of ball in the second half that we wouldn't normally turn over and we'd be disappointed with that. Obviously, we played very well in the first half, gave ourselves good control of the game, used the ball well, created some good scoring chances.

“We were efficient up front in terms of the chances we had got. We would have liked to have retained a bit more ball inside in that first half, but other than that, we'd be happy with the first half performance.

“Second half, we just lacked rhythm and cohesion and fellas got isolated on the ball that wouldn't ordinarily get isolated on the ball. Our energy level dropped in that second half.

“That's to be expected possibly. But I still think we had enough there to get across the line, but ultimately we didn't do enough.”

Kiely also took full responsibility for the fact that Limerick were late back on to the field at the beginning of the second half, almost five minutes after Cork had emerged.

“We got our half-time clock wrong today,” he said.

“That was not an intentional thing to stay off the field for 19 minutes. It was my mistake – I interpreted the information that was available to me incorrectly.

“It was completely my fault that we ended up in the dressing-room for 19 minutes. That shouldn’t have happened. It was my fault, but not intentional under any circumstance at all.

“It wasn’t to protract the situation, I just didn’t get the numbers right in my own head.”