Kilkenny were ruthless as they dispatched brave Antrim in Corrigan Park in the Leinster Senior Championship at the Weekend
Kilkenny traveled to Corrigan undefeated as they faced the Saffrons in round three of the Leinster hurling championship, having beaten Westmeath in the first round and drawn with Galway the week after in round two. Kilkenny had been in the same venue a few weeks previous as the sides faced off in the National Hurling League.
Antrim on the other hand had drawn with the Dubs in round one and lost to Wexford in round two, Manager Darren Gleeson was hoping his side might cause a big upset. Unfortunately for the Tipperary native Kilkenny had other ideas. Within the first two minutes Kilkenny had two goals on the board from Mossy Keoghan and TJ Reid, Keoghan would bag himself a hat-trick of goals in the first half to leave the Cats leading 4-16 to 1-7 at the interval. Antrim played well in the second half but Kilkenny had done enough and came away with a 5-31 to 3-20 victory to leave the Cats part of a trio of teams on top of the table.
Speaking with KCLR after the game Manager Derek Lyng was satisfied with the first half but felt his side got sloppy in the second:-
“I thought the first half we were very good, very sharp, clinical in front of goal, I thought our work rate all over was very good. I thought second half we were a little bit sloppy, I wouldn’t be happy with some of the goals we conceded and that’s something we need to work on, you need to come out in the second half and perform as well as you did in the first half otherwise as the year goes on you’ll get punished. Overall I’m happy, I’d have taken the win up here and it was a decent performance but there’s plenty of room for us to improve on as well”.
Asked about what he would concentrate on after analyzing the game, Lyng said:
“It’s all aspects of it, we did some really good stuff and there were a lot of positives there for us as well that you’d have to applaud the players for, I thought our work rate was really good, I thought we created a lot of chances, I thought we gave the ball to a person in the best position and we got the five goals. There were aspects in the second half you’d be looking at in particular, not happy conceding any goal and were trying to tighten that up but it’s something we’ll work on next week”.
Lyng was asked about his midfield pairings and if he was looking for a midfield duo or how did it work with Mullen and Murphy starting against Antrim or did it depend on the game:-
“It’s a bit of both, Adrian is very effective from anywhere out the field, and Alan is a great striker of the ball we could see that today with a tighter pitch and he got a few opportunities in the first half and he got scores from out the field, we have a lot of options and a few lads injured have had an impact on that and a few lads weren’t available, we’re looking for competition in all positions so well see how the next few weeks pan out, once the teams are working hard all over the place and I really don’t mind who plays in what position, the next two weeks will be interesting we’ll have a few internal matches and we’ll take it from there”
You can hear the full interview at the link below
