Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng sees plenty to work on before Wexford tie

It was a mixture of good and bad for Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng to reflect on as he reviewed the Cats’ win over Dublin.

“Our touch overall seemed to be a bit nervy early on,” he said. “Throughout the game there were periods where we looked a little nervous, but then there were other stages where we were hurling with a lot more conviction. 

“We knew this was going to be a tricky game, so we have to be happy with the win,” the manager added. “We had a decent win against Dublin in the League and I knew they would have learned a lot about us during the League, so they would have come down expecting a big performance. 

“They started the game well, but we battled our way into it and finished the first half reasonably strong. We switched off a little towards the end though, which is something we wouldn’t be happy with.”

The concession of those late points was a cause for concern from the manager.

“There were only a few minutes left but those three or four scores came too handy,” he said. “It would annoy you at the end, as we put ourselves in a strong position, but it is something we’ll have to take from the game and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We made life hard on ourselves at times, but there were a lot of positives too,” he added. 

“I thought there were periods when we were moving the ball well that we got some great scores from out the field. It’s about improving on that, taking the positives from the game and working on them for Wexford.”

It was some of those scores, perhaps from unlikely sources like corner-back Mikey Butler, that impressed the manager.

“We have good hurlers all over the pitch,” he said. “While some are defenders, sometimes they can end up tracking players way out the field so they need to be comfortable with that.

 Conviction

“There’s plenty of talent there in the backs and they’re well capable of taking their scores; it’s just about having the confidence to go on and go for it with conviction when they get the chance.”

Another positive was the return of Billy Drennan to action, albeit in a cameo role.

“It’s great to have him back,” said Lyng. “We were expecting him to be out a lot longer, but his injury wasn’t as bad as we first feared. He’s come back in and trained well, so hopefully he can kick on from here.”

The only blot on Kilkenny’s performance was the loss of Richie Reid to an ankle injury. That knock will leave the Cats playing the waiting game as they assess the situation.

“Hopefully it’s not too serious, but the knock required him to come off,” said Lyng. “We have to wait and see what the diagnosis is, see how he is in the coming days.”

Whether the Wexford game comes too early for Reid remains to be seen, but Kilkenny will still travel to Wexford Park confident that they can close out the round robin series on a winning note.

“The pressure may be off going to Wexford Park, but we want to go down there to win,” said Lyng. “It’s a great game for us to look forward to. 

“We’re in a strong position going down there - we haven’t had a great record against Wexford so it’ll be a big game with a great atmosphere. It’s one that we’ll want to win.”