Cork Under 21 football manager John Cleary wasn't making excuses after his side watch their Cadbury All-Ireland dreams come to an end in tonight's decider at Limerick's Gaelic Grounds.

"They got a bit of a headstart and played very good football in the first half," he said.

"They dragged us around the place and we just couldn't get to grips with their pace and their passing. Having said that we got a lot of ball and we maybe coughed it up a bit easily in the forward lines, it broke then and they hit us."

But Cork failed to throw in the towel and from nine-points in arrears in the 42nd minute they cut the gap to three points with 13 minutes left on the clock.

However, they failed to score for the remainder of the game as Galway claimed silverware.

"At half-time we said we aren't out of this game yet if we get a chance.

"We looked dead and buried when I looked up at the scoreboard and it said '1-14 to 0-8', and we were looking at a right hammering, but in fairness the lads dug in.

"I knew that they wouldn't die, but maybe if we had brought it back to a point it might have created doubts - the nearest we came to it was two points and they were always able to break up the field and take their scores.

"They are a good team and maybe just a small bit sharper than us on the day."

Brian Hurley's 44th minute goal kick-started Cork's revival.

"We did yeah. We brought it down to three points, if we could have brought it to one it might have put doubts in their mind, but they broke up the field and were deserving of their victory." Tweet

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