Cork must move on from defeat and regroup for qualifiers, says Kieran Kingston

Alan Cadogan of Cork in action against Calum Lyons of Waterford. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Kieran Kingston has said Cork “are better than we showed today” and must now “regroup” for the qualifiers.

Cork did not lead from the 12th minute of this Munster semi-final, with Kingston saying afterward that his side “didn’t deserve to win the game”.

“It was a tough day. I said beforehand I didn’t really know where we were at, but I certainly thought we were going well enough in training. Today, we didn’t bring the performance from training. The way we were going in training, we didn’t bring it to the pitch today. Over the course of the 70-odd minutes I think we didn’t deserve to win the game,” remarked the Cork manager.

“When you look back on it, we lost more than our fair share of those (50-50) balls and that’s disappointing. From our perspective, we have a game under the belt, we have to regroup, see what the draw brings and see what we can learn from today.

“We are better than we showed today, no question about that.”

Kingston revealed that Aidan Walsh pulled up in the warm-up while Colm Spillane failed a late fitness test. Both players were named to start, their places taken by Sean O’Leary-Hayes and Daire Connery.

The Waterford goal, arriving as it did three minutes into the second-half, “came at the wrong time” for Cork.

Calum Lyons' drop shot shoved Waterford six in front and no closer than five points would Cork come of their opponents until second-half stoppages.

“It came at the right time for them. We would have liked to have got that break at the other end. Then, I think, when that happened, they were able to sit back a little bit more and invite us on them, and they did that very, very well.

“Fair play to Waterford, we can lament and drown our sorrows, but we got to turn this around as quick as we can, see what the draw brings us, and we also got to congratulate Waterford. They deserved it on the day.

“We got to take the learnings from it and be ready for the next game, whether that is a week or two weeks.”