Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng laments slow start to Tipperary game

Derek Lyng suffered his first league defeat as Kilkenny manager as he watched his team go down to a well developed Tipperary side.

The Emeralds man was most disappointed with the way his side performed in the opening half and how they allowed Tipperary to dictate matters.

“We have plenty to take out of the game but the first half wasn’t good enough as we stood off Tipperary and gave them too much room and you can’t do that as they are too good a team and they punished us,” he said.

“We tightened up in the second half and there was a bit more purpose to it. We played with a bit more pace and we had a few chances that would have brought us back into it, but ultimately we weren’t good enough today.

“We were second best and while there’s lots of learnings from it, today is only useful if we can learn from it and build on it.”
Whatever about losing a game Lyng feels there is a way to lose and he acknowledged that his side fell down on the basics of the game.

“We still have a lot of work to do but we struggled in some of the basics in the game,” he pointed out. “You can’t allow too much space and you can’t stand off players - things like that I probably wouldn’t have been happy with.

“I said to the players that we are trying to work on different things and we are trying to be a lot more comfortable on the ball, but we made life very difficult on ourselves particularly in the first half.

“We don’t want to favour one style over another, but we have to get better at making those decisions on the field and just mixing it up a bit more.

“Again though the most disappointing aspect of the first half was how much space we gave them as you can’t do that.”

Kilkenny’s use of the short game came in for much scrutiny after the conclusion of Sunday’s defeat and the manager knows it will take a bit of time to implement a new style of play.

“I’ve said to the players that I don’t mind mistakes,” the manager added. “That’s what we are saying to them because we are going to have to break a few eggs and that’s the reality of it. There’s great learning in that.
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At the same time there’s a lot to take away from the game. We just have to keep working at it and just get better at it.”

While adding that there was a few good things in the second half, the former Kilkenny player is concentrating on improving on the first half no-show.

“The reality of it is we could have been behind by a lot more at half-time,” he said. “In the last 10 minutes of the half Tipperary just ran right through us. Some of our decision making just wasn’t good enough - we just gave them too much room.”

“The second half was decent but really when you are reflecting on the game, for me it’s about the first half and where we were at there and that’s the main focus.”

While Lyng doesn’t expect to see any of the Shamrocks players outside of Darragh Corcoran in action until the end of the month at the earliest, he’s still trying to work through his panel ahead of their next league game against Laois.

“It’s a bit of a juggling act for us at the minute and we’ve a lot of players coming back into us from the club campaign and the Fitzgibbon Cup which will be good.

“We’ve a competitive panel there and it was good to see that some of the subs came in and did well so that was a positive.

“Our focus is to now get ready for Laois in two weeks’ time.”