Upbeat Bergin happy to see his side get back to winning ways

Kilkenny’s minor championship ambitions remain intact for at least another few weeks after Friday night’s win in Manguard Park and Niall Bergin was delighted to see his team get back on track.

“It’s good to get back to winning ways and to be fair to the lads their confidence took a bit of a knock over the last few weeks and it was nice to get the win,” he said.

“The lads had to earn it and they earned it in a very tough way there today and in fairness to Kildare they played well.

“Thankfully we got the goals at the right times and ended up winning the game comfortably in the end although it wasn’t that comfortable over the course of the game.

“We showed a lot of heart and thankfully we got over the line in the end and now we can look forward to a Leinster semi-final which is exactly where we want to be.”

The Kilkenny boss was happy with side’s improved showing in attack and also praised a Kildare side that gave them plenty of issues.

“It’s nice to get 4-16 when you consider six days ago we only got 12 points so it was good to get the scores on the board and even for the lads confidence levels it was important but we are under no illusions as to what’s coming against Galway.

“These lads are only 15, 16 and 17 years of age so they are very young and they took a bit of knocking over the last few weeks and that wasn’t their true form against Dublin or Wexford.

“We are back to winning ways now thanks be to god and Kildare came in here on the back of four championship wins so you could see they were hungry for it and they were fearless as they went at it and fair play to them as you can see the work they are putting in at underage level and it bodes well for the future for them,” Bergin continued.

While the quarter-final clash was a knockout tie, the Cats now know regardless of the result against Galway that they will have a route into the All-Ireland series which Bergin the Kilkenny manager sees as a big positive.

“The reality was that if we lost today we were out of the championship and with that win, we are now into a Leinster semi-final as well as the All-Ireland series and in terms of development that’s huge for these lads and it’s exactly what they need.”