IF THE Cork manager Larry Tompkins was taking any pleasure from beating his home county, he wasn't showing it afterwards.

His assessment was low-key. "I thought it was a free-flowing game, a lot of good football played by both sides. We got a good start obviously but Kildare were always going to come back at us and they got a goal which changed things a little bit in the second-half.

"The most pleasing thing was that the players went out there and used their own initiative, their own football brains. When you come to Croke Park there's no point looking to me or anybody else. I asked them to express themselves today and that's what they did."

Could we expect a bit of shadow boxing with Kerry in the League final given Cork's anticipated appointment with them later in the summer? "It's a major competition, I don't think either team will be pulling up," he said.

Corner forward Aidan Dorgan scored 1-2 on his Croke Park debut and clearly enjoyed himself. "The pitch is great, plenty of space. Larry gave me the freedom of the park, which makes life easy, so yeah, I enjoyed it."

Full back Mark O'Connor has been in Croke Park on less happy occasions but things went smoothly enough yesterday, he said. "The two goals definitely helped but I thought a lot of our moves in the first-half were good, we took some good scores. The only thing that was disappointing was our tendency to kick away possession in the second-half, and on top of that we started to play as individuals as well.

"Kildare came back at us in the second-half maybe we panicked or relaxed a bit, but we came back again and that's a good sign. It's a learning experience, that's the great thing about getting to the play-offs. We learned from the Louth game, we learned from today and we'll learn from the final."

Cork were physically bigger and their power counted in a lot of exchanges. "Yeah, a lot of our kick-outs were won by both wing backs, as well as the midfield, so we do have strength. It's vital nowadays, the way the game has gone. It was a big game for Sean Og (O hAilpin) and he played very well, the two corner backs also played very well, and they're big strong men too."

Kildare manager Mick O'Dwyer saved the tough-talking for his team in the privacy of their dressing room and gave the players an easy ride with the press. "They showed marvellous character in the second-half, we missed frees which would have brought us closer but, overall, I was happy enough. I was disappointed at conceding those two soft goals at the start and they were the goals that made the difference in the end."

He was quick to deny that the performance had anything to do with disciplinary problems. "Not at all, sure there was fire and spirit in that team in the second-half.

"There was never any question of that making a difference. Players who we thought, wouldn't be fit enough for today's game were dropped and we brought in guys who we thought would be fit enough. You have to do these things, you have to try players in the League, the big game this year is on June 8th and that's what we're looking forward to."

Kildare captain Glen Ryan was more dejected. "The two goals were critical, eight points is a very big lead to try and claw back. But it's very disappointing, we had a lot of opportunities and didn't take them ... so no excuses."