Battling qualities in victory pleases Lyng
Kilkenny’s Leinster championship fate is now in their own hands as they maintained their unbeaten record in this year’s round-robin.
In a game that could have went either way, Derek Lyng was delighted at the way his team dug out a big result against Dublin.
“I’m really proud of the fight because the momentum really swung Dublin’s way in the second half after the goal,” he said. “I’m really happy with how we responded and we picked off scores.
“We left some behind us too but we kept going and we got the goal in the end.
“Any time you get the win like we did today you’d be happy,” Lyng added. “I thought the attitude was outstanding today. We were disappointed with ourselves last weekend and that’s the reality of it.
“That’s no disrespect to Carlow but we have our own standards and our work-rate wasn’t good enough,” the Kilkenny manager added.
“I thought today when the momentum swung against us that the lads showed character because it would have been easy to drop the heads but we kept going and we picked off scores and we put pressure on their shooters and we just about got there in the end. I’m delighted with that.”
Asked about the performance, the Emeralds man cited workrate as a big improvement from the Carlow game.
“They exhausted themselves out there all over the pitch,” he said of the team. “Once we picked off a few scores, they kept the chase up and put a lot of pressure on carrying the ball and the shooters.
“It’s hard work and we didn’t bring that last week and that’s the reality of it. That was the disappointing thing all week, we have our own standards and we didn’t hit them last week. Carlow deserved everything that they got last week but we judge ourselves on our own standards and that wasn’t good enough.”
Saturday’s game saw Kilkenny welcome back a number of injured players and the game-time will be crucial heading into a vital part of the season.
“That game will do them good and it’s been stop start, we’ve had a lot of lads that have broken down at the wrong time. We lost five players to injury against Antrim and they’re coming back now.
“Even today, it was tough on them because some of them were back for their first game,” he added. “It takes a while to get up to the pitch of the game but they kept going. It was just about enough today so we’ll be happy with that.”
The former Kilkenny star also praised John Donnelly for a big display in attack.
“He was fantastic,” said Lyng. “He’s just really efficient. Some of the points he scored, they were big ones. That gives the whole team belief. Every time you saw the ball dropping over the bar you could see the players responding.
“Big players step up and John is one of those,” he said. “He was everywhere and he was popping up on the breaks and connected on those really well. It was a good day for him.”
The win puts Kilkenny in a decent position but they still have work to do against Wexford in Nowlan Park on Sunday afternoon.
“Look we’re in a semi-final and the reality is that we have a chance now. If we came out of here with nothing today, we didn’t. That’s what was facing us so there was a lot of pressure on today. But look, we’re happy today, we weren’t happy last weekend, we need to drive on now and that’s what we need to do, we’re looking forward to next week.”