Colm McGurk admitted that his Derry team were out of their depth in last Saturday's All-Ireland U21HC semi-final against Kilkenny.

A complete mis-match at Semple Stadium ended in a 52-point victory for the Cats, prompting calls for the competition to be overhauled.

McGurk, who won an All-Ireland senior football medal in 1993, conceded that the Oak Leafers would be better off playing in the All-Ireland U21 'B' championship.

"It was a hard day at the office. We knew coming down here that it was going to be tough," the Derry manager said in the Irish News.

"We thought we could maybe hold them for five, 10, 15 or 20 minutes, but Kilkenny came out of the traps real hard and made sure we didn't have any hope.

"In all reality, Derry should be in the tier two U21 competition along with Kerry and Meath, and all the Ulster teams should be there as it stands presently. But that's the way of the draw. The fellas want to play in Thurles against Kilkenny and that's a nice experience regardless of the outcome."

He added: "It has been a good season for us. It's unfortunate that it's ended like this, but we'll go home and dust ourselves down and go at it again.

"We lost five of our fellas that played in the Ulster final through injury. Two broken hands, a hip injury for Brian Cassidy, our top scorer. That tally left us completely up against it."

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