Kilkenny U20 manager explains how they 'got to grips' with challenging Dublin test

Kilkenny U20 manager, Mark Dowling praised his side’s resilience in Saturday’s win over Dublin, overcoming a 'sloppy' opening half to win the game with relative ease by the finish.

Goals ultimately proved to be the decisive factor on the day, with Dublin’s concession of the first after just two minutes from James Hughes and a misplaced pass for the third netted Cats finish from Ed McDermott in the second half helping Kilkenny on their way to a 3-20 to 2-16 win. - READ FULL MATCH REPORT HERE

"We did go out of the game for a spell in the first half and they made hay at that stage but look I thought the lads rallied well," Dowling said after the match.

"I thought there was a lot of them there who put in a big shift and you know certain games don't go your way maybe and you have to dig in a bit to try and turn the tide and I felt as a unit and a group they’ve kind of done that and the lads who came in again made big impacts."

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Dowling, now his third season as manager is under no illusions though, and is determined a positive second period can be transformed into the complete performance by Leinster Semi-Final day in over five weeks time.

"We didn't perform well in the first half, there's no point in saying otherwise," he admitted.

"I just felt we went away from a lot of stuff we had been doing and and we were kind of a bit sloppy on a lot of things our shooting was poor, our shot selection was poor and our use of the ball was poor.

"In the second half, I thought we got to grips with our own game,“ the Dicksboro clubman continued.

"We did improve in the second half so we were we were glad to do that."

"We got two lucky goals. I'm not going to deny that but look you get breaks in matches and in plenty of matches we haven't got breaks so I can tell you so I was glad to get them today."

The introduction of the short-game was also a talking point amongst supporters last weekend, but Dowling believes it’s here to stay.

"It (hurling) has changed, there's no point in saying otherwise and it's grand people saying maybe do this or do that, like ultimately the game has moved on like all things and you have to move with it."

Kilkenny have now got a Leinster Semi-Final to look forward to, with a lengthy break period of almost six weeks arguably their biggest hurdle after losing at the same stage after topping the group last year.

"We have a long gap now to manage but look it's a good problem to have, we've close to six week gap to manage but we'll we'll manage that. It's starts now for us, look, it's great to win these two matches but ultimately in five and a half weeks we have to be spot on."

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