CARLOW hurling manager Kevin Ryan was far from downcast after watching his charges go down to a three-point defeat to DIT in Sunday’s Walsh Shield semi-final at Dr Cullen Park.
The Waterford man bemoaned the fact that Carlow had missed an awful lot of chances over the course of the game they shot 11 wides (six in the first half and five in the second) and conceded that DIT “were certainly more clinical”.
Kevin said that Carlow’s seventh point from the stick of Craig Doyle had been a very good score. That reduced the leeway to a single point (0-8 to 0-7).
“We were back in it,” the Carlow manager commented but then almost immediately came the deflation of the DIT goal and at half time the difference was out to four points.
“We worked very hard and are only at the start of training at the moment,” stated the manager. He said Carlow had engaged his native Waterford on Friday night at WIT “and for 50 minutes it was a tight game” before the Deise pulled away.
“We are missing some of the stronger and fitter players,” Kevin noted, adding that there are nine Mount Leinster Rangers players on the county panel panellists who were not available for Sunday’s tie.
He described the current situation with the Carlow panel as “a work in progress” and admitted that his team had been very flat against UCD in the Walsh Cup opener at IT Carlow grounds last Friday week.
But he expressed himself happier with Sunday’s display and feels things are starting to come together ahead of the league opener in a month’s time.