Derek Lyng rang the changes for this game making eleven changes in total, Eoin Murphy took over in goal, Shane Murphy, Conor Delaney, Tommy Walsh, and Richie Reid all came into the backs while Paddy Mullen made his league debut in midfield.
John Donnelley, captain Eoin Cody, and Tullaroan’s Gearoid Dunne all came into the forward line as the manager tries to find his best team for the start of the Championship.
The Cats’ manager was delighted with the first half but he was far from impressed with the second-half performance.
“Second half (was) so-so, we made a few changes I wouldn’t get too excited by the second half, I thought we probably overdid it at times at the back, and we were a little bit shaky at times as well. We just have to keep up with it towards the next two weeks again”.
“We have a lot of lads coming back, I thought it was an improvement in the first half, we were sharp, we were in control, and as the game went on we made a lot of substitutions and we lost our shape a little bit”.
Taking Chances
Asked about his side’s lack of goals, Lyng said: “We have to start taking our chances, we had a couple of goal chances in the first half and really we need to carry the ball further and make sure of them, one or two of them we were trying to force them and you can’t do that either, I would be disappointed we didn’t get a goal, it is what it is today and we just have to improve on it”.
“We probably drew the game in the second half playing against a bit of a breeze, overall I’m reasonably happy, I wouldn’t say we weren’t taking today seriously, the players we had available were there and we are happy with them it was a good effort from everyone, we have a few bodies hopefully coming back in the next few weeks, we’re looking to improve on everything”.
KCLR’s Adrian Ronan asked the manager bout his side’s puck-outs in the game and if they had been working on them.
“We are doing a lot of work on everything, the most important was our attitude and I thought that was really good in the first half, I wouldn’t have been happy with our first-half performance against Tipperary, today we had a good energy about us, we were good on the ball, we worked the ball well, some of the puck-outs worked out well”.
“It was decent to a point and then we lost our shape a little bit, the reality of it is we’re gonna have bigger tests coming up, and that’s something we need to be wary of that when we go out of a game we need to find a way to get back into it”.
Listen back to Laois v Kilkenny, Allianz Hurling League Division 1A round 3 on the link below
