Keith Rossiter: Wexford negatives outweigh the positives

Keith Rossiter says Wexford are a work in progress after they paid the price for a tame first-half showing against Kilkenny in Saturday's Allianz Hurling League Division 1A clash.

The Cats were 12 points to the good at the break having overpowered their hosts with a physical, clinical display.

However the Model men - still missing the talismanic Lee Chin - were much better on the turnaround, getting back to within six points before their recovery ran out of steam and Kilkenny went home with a 2-17 to 0-15 win.

Rossiter acknowledged their improvement, but he did not shy away from his team's weaknesses.

"The first 37, 38 minutes, it's not what we're about," he told RTÉ Sport.

"I wouldn't be happy at all. We addressed it at half-time. The lads showed a good bit of fight the second half but at this level you're not going to get away with 38 minutes of hurling.

"We got them back to about seven in the second half and I think we had three or four wides on the trot. In fairness to Kilkenny, they weren't going to let a lead like that slip but our lads kept battling away.

"When you go in and see the stats on the board it'll tell you straight out that the tackle count was disgraceful. It is what it is. Kilkenny came out of the traps good and quick. We probably had two or three scoreable chances just to settle the thing but didn't take them. That's a bit of a trend at the minute that we're just not taking those."

"We are in transition, we are building..." - Wexford manager Keith Rossiter admitted his side were well below par in the first half of their loss to Kilkenny, but he took encouragement from a much-improved second-half showing #RTEgaa I @LawlorDamian pic.twitter.com/svZe6xJF7r

Wexford were a different animal after Rossiter delivered