The Kittens draw with Premier woman in classic game to book a spot in next weekends championship quarter finals
Kilkenny and Tipperary met in the last group game of the Glen Dimplex Senior Camogie championship at UPMC Nowlan Park on Saturday last. A win for either team would see them top the group and potentially book a semi-final spot.
Tipperary started well and capitalized on a mistake in the Kilkenny defense to get a goal, Roisín Howard on the end of the move with just two minutes on the clock.
Kilkenny responded well and Denise Gaule pounced on a Tipperary mistake in the eleventh minute to grab Kilkenny’s first goal. Which was soon followed up with their second goal from Aoife Prendergast.
Kilkenny led at the break after some confusion about the score, it was confirmed as 2-4 to 1-6.
Tipperary came out of the traps very quick in the second half and opened up a three point lead early on. It took Kilkenny a while to register their first point of the second half, this came in the 16th minute with Asha McHardy getting the point. Kilkenny only managed to get two points in the second half which wasn’t good enough to win the game but it wasn’t a loss and with Dublin defeating Wexford in the other game it meant that Kilkenny would qualify for the All-Ireland quarter finals.
The draw was done after the game and it paired Kilkenny with Cork as both counties will once again renew rivalries in Croke Park at the weekend
“Disappointed we didn’t get the victory, we came here to get it, I thought we did some lovely hurling, we dropped off and didn’t hurl well then in patches. A lot of frustration, a lot of decisions made [Referee] I wouldn’t be happy with at all, we have to look at ourselves as well probably didn’t score enough, 2-8 wouldn’t be a great score and we have to improve hugely for next weekend”
“Mistakes happen, this was a very intense game, Tipp probably made mistakes like we did. We gave a sloppy goal away early at the start but in fairness the girls reacted well and we came back well and got ahead and again we just dropped off, I don’t know why its happening. Denise was flying it inside and the ball just stopped going into her. Second half we didn’t come out all guns blazing so it was very disappointing. In fairness our backs were to the wall I think we were three or four down, we turned around and got a draw and we’re still in the championship”
“Yeah was happy to be in the lead, I thought after we got the goal we didn’t push on at all we had a couple of chances to go ahead but we didn’t do that and I thought we could have been four or five points up at half time instead of one, start of the second half wasn’t great either, we just have to look back on where we went wrong and try improve for next weekend quickly”
“We didn’t score enough 2-8 is a very poor score if you had to tell me this morning that Tipp would only score 1-11 id have been very happy, to only score 2-8 is very disappointing from our point. I don’t know if it was wrong decision or the ball just went wide and some strikes went left or right of the post when they should be going over the bar at this level and they didn’t go over so that’s something we have to rectify quickly”
“Its a massive match now at a quarter final stage, we said it ourselves we’d probably get Cork, look we could have won today and still got Cork that’s just the way it is. We just have to take who we get, Cork are a brilliant team they had a massive win today so I’m sure their confidence will be high, look anytime you get into Croke Park its great we’re disappointed with today but we have to get over that quickly and move onto next weekend”
We really loved the support we got for the All-Ireland final and homecoming last year but we need everyone here on Sunday driving us on and not just coming for the second half just been there from the start and supporting these girls, the effort they put in is unbelievable, I’ve said it to them again I cant ever question their character whatever happens on that pitch they stay fighting right to the last minute, we could easily have won that game, I know we could have lost it as well they were fighting right to the end and that’s what they always do, look hopefully we’ll get a big support from Kilkenny next weekend”
You can listen to the full interview at the link below
