The Kilkenny minor team got off to the perfect start in the Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Hurling Championship as they defeated Laois by 3 goals and 17 points to 1 goal and 12 points in Laois Hire O’Moore Park at the weekend.
The goals came at the hand of captain Mikey Stynes, with Ed Lauhoff and Brian Moore grabbing the others. Conor Doyle grabbed 10 points for himself with six of those coming from dead-ball situations. The big talking point of the game, came when Sean Bergin received his marching orders in the 23rd minute of the game. Some critics said it was harsh, but Kilkenny intermediate winning manager Niall Bergin stated he did no even see the incident when we caught up with him after the game.
See also: Kilkenny show their class to dispatch of Laois in opening round of the Leinster championship
While he had not much to say on the red card, Bergin was delighted to share his thoughts with Scoreline on getting the Championship underway;
“It took a while to get going, but we are delighted to get up and running. We have been waiting for this game for a long time, so it was nice to leave O’Moore Park at the right time.”
“The work rate was top class, particularly when we went down to 14 men. We had to work and work and work. They turned over a lot of balls, some may have been from Laois mistakes, but we like to think we forced those mistakes.”
“Very different feeling leaving Portlaoise this year as opposed to last year.”
Niall Bergin’s side continues their campaign on Saturday at 1.15 pm o’clock when they travel to Abbottstown to face Antrim, with that game being broadcast live on KCLR with Philip Ireland Tyres.
Listen back to the interview below on Scoreline Extra:
