WATCH: Limerick minor manager Shane Dowling says Munster Championship defeat to Waterford 'extremely disappointing'

SHANE Dowling and his Limerick minor hurling team were defeated by Waterford in round four of the Munster minor hurling championship on a final scoreline of 4-12 to 1-14.

This result means that Limerick have been knocked out of the provincial championship and have failed to reach the All-Ireland series. 

Speaking after the defeat, manager Shane Dowling was unsure of what went wrong for his side in a ten-point defeat in the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Thursday night.

''I don't know, after the last day we looked at it and tried to change a few things up. The one thing we had been doing was that teams found it hard to score against us but that wasn't the case. It's extremely disappointing.’’

The Shannonsiders suffered a hammer blow after two minutes when Waterford full-forward Shane Power raised a green flag. 

''They got a goal after two minutes, that shouldn't rock any team. There's still another 60 minutes to go. We've so much work put in, it's not even funny no different to any other team out there. It didn't appear to transpire onto the pitch unfortunately. Fair enough, the first game against Cork you could give it pass.

"The last day [against Clare] I actually didn't think we were too bad, I know we didn't score from play but we actually had 15 shots on goal. We put a huge amount of work on that in the last 12 day to try and make sure that they went over. Early on in the first half they didn't and in the second half they did. We were chasing the game the whole time.''

Limerick are now out of championship and will play their last group game against Tipperary next Thursday, May 9 in the TUS Gaelic Grounds and Shane Dowling will be looking for his side to finish their campaign on a high note. 

''Ultimately, it's a learning curve but at the same time you still want to win a couple of games and develop and go further into the championship. I played with Limerick for a long time and I'm a very proud Limerick man.

"I'm just trying to instill that into the boys and they need to understand what the crest stands for. Next Thursday night is going to be a difficult assignment because we are out of the championship. The lads that are playing, they're just going to have to put their best foot forward, it's as simple as that.''