Kilkenny beat Dublin in round four of the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship by six points at UPMC Nowlan Park on Saturday evening
Kilkenny hosted Dublin in UPMC Nowlan Park in the Leinster Championship, Dublin came to town with a victory over Wexford the previous week, the same teams had met in the Allianz League a couple of months earlier with Kilkenny coming away with a comfortable win. The visitors started the game brightly and raced into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead by the ten-minute mark. It took Kilkenny a while to get going but they were level for the first time by the thirteenth minute at 0-4 each and they both had purple patches in the half with Kilkenny coming out on top with a lead at halftime by four points (0-13 to 0-9).
Neither team really threatened the opposition keeper with errors being to the fore from both teams in both halves, the game was also very stop/start with free takers being instrumental to both teams, by the 60th minute Kilkenny had a sizeable lead after opening up an eight-point lead (0-24 to 0-16). Kilkenny took the foot off the pedal and left Dublin to get a couple of late scores to leave just six between the teams at the final whistle (0-27 to 0-21). It was Kilkenny’s third win of the campaign and it now means that a win or a draw against Wexford at the weekend in the final round will put Kilkenny into this year’s Leinster Final.
Speaking to the media after the game, Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng was asked first if his team were nervous, he replied:-
“Yeah I think so, I’m not too sure, it wasn’t just one or two players, our touch all over seemed to be a little bit nervy. Throughout the game there were periods we were nervy about other parts then we were hurling with a lot more conviction, overall just happy with the win to be honest, I know it was going to be a tricky one, we had a decent league against them in the league and they would have learned a lot about us after that game and I was expecting a big performance from them, they started the game well but we battled our way into it and we finished the first half reasonably strong but like I said we switched off to the end which I wouldn’t have been happy with”
“At times our decision-making wasn’t good, they had an extra player back and to be fair to the lads they were looking on ahead and trying to work it through, at times we overdid no no doubt about it and we made life hard on ourselves but there were positives out there as well, there were periods when we were moving really well we got some great scores out the field, so it’s about improving on that and taking the positives out of it and we’ll get ready for Wexford next weekend”.
“It’s a great game for us to look forward to, we’re going down there and we’re in a good position. As soon as tonight is over we’ll re-assess tomorrow morning and get a recovery session in and we’re getting ready for Wexford then. We haven’t had a great record against Wexford and it’s a game we’re looking forward to, it’s a big game, a great atmosphere down there, and it’s one that we’ll want to win”
Asked about his team trying to run the clock down and losing concentration, which can be costly to the team, Lyng replied:
“You can’t do it, there were only a few minutes left, three or four scores handed to them, it would annoy you because we put ourselves in a strong position but look its something that we have to take from it and try and make sure we don’t let it happen again”
You can listen back to Derek’s full interview on Scoreline Extra on the link below
