Sutcliffe lets his hurling do the talking

Dublin goalscorer Danny Sutcliffe has told of how he didn’t leave his house in the build-up to Saturday’s Leinster semi-final so as to avoid talk his team had missed out on beating Kilkenny.

The 2012 All Star nominee also admitted he ignored the advice of his team-mates when going for the net in the 54th minute to push Dublin four points ahead.

After Anthony Daly had revealed he was told ad nauseam Dublin had missed their chance in the first game in Portlaoise, St Jude’s man Sutcliffe said he had made an effort to stay away from idle chat.

“To be honest, I stayed in the house on my own all week because I knew even my friends would be saying it (the chance to win) was gone.

“But we just had to bring a good performance again and see how it went and that’s what we have done all year it was a good performance and thankfully it was enough.”

Against the wisdom of his fellow forwards, Sutcliffe struck for Eoin Murphy’s goal after David O’Callaghan’s attempt had been stopped by Lester Ryan just a couple of seconds beforehand.

“I don’t know how it went in with all the bodies in the way and they were all shouting at me to put it over the bar but I said I’d chance my arm and hit it low and thank God it went in.”

Sutcliffe is grounded enough to know it was only a game that was won but he knows Dublin can take plenty of positives from it going into Sunday’s Leinster final against Galway in Croke Park.

“It was just relentless pressure. We didn’t die off or have a lull, we matched them as much as we could and thank God we came out the right side. We are learning and it’s good to be in a Leinster final.”

Not for the first time, Sutcliffe came away from O’Moore Park having got the better of Tommy Walsh, a player he admires greatly.

“Look you want to test yourself against the best and he is the best, pretty much one of the best of all time, and any day you can get anything out of him is a plus for me so I was delighted.”

His heart was in his mouth, though, prior to his goal when Kilkenny began to reel in Dublin. “It was tense and there were a few frees going over and a few missed and it’s a small margin of error so thankfully that goal was in the bank.

“We knew we needed to stay with them for as long as we could and see how it went. ”

Daly spoke afterwards of how proud he was of his players and management team but inside the dressing room, regardless of history having being made and 71 year hoodoos broken, focus had already moved onto Sunday.

So what did he say? “Just that we have won nothing yet,” said Sutcliffe, “so there’s no point getting excited we have a game next week and that’s about it.”

And don’t expect him to complain about a fifth game in as many weeks. “The more games you get the better, that’s what you want to do.”