Kilkenny make it three wins in a row in Allianz National Hurling League division 1A after defeating Dubs yesterday
Derek Lyng and his Kilkenny side have made it three wins out of four in this year’s national hurling league with a 2-25 to 1-17 win over Dublin at UPMC Nowlan Park yesterday. It wasn’t the best of games to watch but Kilkenny won’t mind as they chase a league semi-final spot. The win moves the cats up to second in the table with the last game against Waterford at the weekend to decide who will go through along with Tipperary who are at top of Group B.
The cats had a 0-17 to 0-8 lead over a very poor Dublin team at the interval, a positive for the men in stripes where they registered no wide in a half where they were dominant and ruthless. Kilkenny looked physically stronger than their opponents and this we evident with the host’s smart use of the ball and taking their chances when available. Derek Lyng was very impressed with his side first half performance
“I thought we started the game well, it gave us a cushion throughout the game, but we have bigger tests to come”
The Leinster champions continued their form in the second half and got their first goal of the game when Paddy Deegan after doing some great individual work passed the ball across the square to Eoin Cody who dispatched the sliotar to the Dublin net. If the writing wasn’t on the wall at half time it certainly was by the 8th minute of the second half.
Quick Thinking
Some fast thinking from Billy Ryan gave Kilkenny their second goal after being fouled Billy looked up, and saw Eoin Cody at the edge of the square, with a fast free put straight into Cody’s hand, the Ballyhale sharpshooter drove a bullet past Eddie Gibbons in the Dublin goal.
“We don’t know what kinda training both teams are doing, or what injures are there but we know when it comes to the championship it’s going to be a different game altogether and we’re under no illusions there”.
When asked about his team’s possibility of getting into a semi-final, Lyng said: “We’d take a semi-final no matter where it goes on. We have a big test coming next week, and it’s ideal the game coming, I’m Looking forward to it its a good test for us”.
Kilkenny picked up several injuries, and goalie Eoin Murphy had to be substituted at half-time after picking up a head injury during the first half:-
“We picked up a couple of head injures, we had planned to give a couple of lads a run-out but unfortunately some of the injures were forced on us and we didn’t get a chance to do it”.
Asked if he was happy with where his team is at the minute, Derek responded:
“Reasonably happy, we obviously weren’t good against Tipperary but we’ve picked up the other wins, we probably learned a lot from the Tipperary game, we knew we had to pick it and the attitude from the players has been excellent. We have bigger tests to come and we know next week will be another one for us and that ideal that’s what we want”.
You can listen back to Derek’s full interview at the link below
Kilkenny welcomes Waterford to UPMC Nowlan Park in Allianz Hurling League Round 5 action this weekend as the Cats search for a semi-final spot. Join us this Sunday on air, online, and in the KCLR app from 1.15 pm for the buildup to the big game. This game is thanks to the full range of Commercial vehicles at Laharts, the home of Volkswagen in Kilkenny.
