Tough pill to swallow: Cork manager Kieran Kingston during Saturday's quarter-final defeat to Galway.

Cork manager Kieran Kingston wasn't entertaining talk of his own future at the final whistle in Semple Stadium.

"I’ve just come off the pitch and I haven’t even washed my hands yet. I went to the Galway dressing-room and spoke to our own backroom team, so I haven’t thought of anything," the Cork manager said after a one-point loss to Henry Shefflin's side in an All-Ireland quarter final that took its time warming up.

"Our focus was Antrim, then it was Galway - there was no thought of anything else. I don’t want any talk or speculation about me to take away from Galway’s win or from the character our group showed in the second half, which I’m really proud of."

Kingston admitted Cork "didn't help themselves" in the first half when they wasted a number of goal opportunities and racked up a galling number of wides. 

"We had 24 shots and seven scores, so the efficiency was really poor. In that there were missed goal scoring opportunities which we’ve been taking easily enough in the last few games, but today for some reason we weren’t," added Kingston.

"Credit to the lads, they created the chances but we we weren’t [taking] them. On the other side we got hit with a sucker punch with a goal in the opening seconds and another one later, but we were really in the game at half-time. Though we were playing into the breeze we were only five points down.

"I thought the lads showed real character in the second half, they never threw the towel in. I’m as proud of them for reacting that way to the first half because they could have thrown the towel in after conceding soft scores and missing scores. And I’m really proud they didn’t do that and they at least deserved a draw out of the game."

Kingston added that he wouldn't criticise players who'd passed up point opportunities and instead gone for goal.

"If you’re through you have to go for those chances, and we’d never discourage the lads from that," he insisted. "They’re not errors if you’re doing the right thing - missing a goal, we never see that as a mistake if you’re doing the right thing and the shot is the right thing."

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