First-half blitz helps Kilkenny to see off Antrim

Kilkenny's bid to secure a place in the Leinster final remains firmly on track as they overpowered Antrim at a sunny Corrigan Park this afternoon.

A hat-trick of goals in the first half from Martin Keoghan and one in each half for top-scorer TJ Reid underlined the Noresiders' dominance and while Antrim continued to battle to the last, they were never really in contention in the second period.

The hosts will rue a slow start that saw Kilkenny rattle the net twice to put them on the back foot and while they initially rallied, by the break they were 18 adrift.

Kilkenny hadn't found the net in their opening two games in the competition but were quick to correct that stat as after TJ Reid pointed a free in the opening seconds. From the subsequent puck out Alan Murphy rose to fetch with the ball, played inside and John Donnelly found Martin Keoghan for this first of his goals.

They didn't have long to wait for a second as after Kelean Molloy got Antrim on the board, Eoin Murphy's puck out found Reid in an obscene amount of space and he was able to gallop through to blast home.

Yet the hosts responded well with a Paul Boyle point and then from a long delivery, Conor Johnston knocked down into the path of Molloy to race through and hit the roof of the net, pegging the gap at 2-2 to 1-2.

The sides traded points, but Kilkenny then began to pull away with their touch and vision excellent and, with Antrim now struggling to gain any traction, rattling off five points on the spin.

The hosts kept plugging away with Niall McKenna splitting the posts from an acute angle, but the scores were flowing at the other end through Adrian Mullen, Billy Ryan, Reid and Richie Reid who thumped over from range.

The Cats were threatening more goals to put