Brian Cody admitted Kilkenny were "outhurled from start to finish" against Clare, but refused to entertain the notion of relegation and instead challenged his men to salvage a place in the quarter-finals.
The Cats suffered their second Allianz Hurling League Division 1A defeat on the bounce at Cusack Park, as a ravenous home team earned the county's biggest ever victory over Kilkenny at senior level.
Cody had no complaints at the outcome, but he's in no mood to press the panic button either.
“We were outhurled from start to finish," he told RTÉ Sport. "As the game went on they got more and more on top.
"We’re looking at the brighter side of things."
“It’s a very competitive league, everyone knows that from the start. Obviously we’re down four points from two games, it’s not ideal.
"Everybody wants to win their matches; we want to win our matches. We’re under pressure in the league as regards to making the quarter-finals. We’re not looking at relegation. We’re looking at the brighter side of things.
“The challenge is there now to start winning matches."
For Clare joint-manager Donal Moloney, it was a case of keeping things in perspective.
The Banner started their league campaign with a defeat to Cork but they fizzed with energy against Kilkenny to show what they're capable of this year, though Moloney stressed there's work to be done.
“We recognise that Kilkenny were off the pace today, their touch didn’t work, they got injuries at the wrong time to some of their key players," he said.
"When you put all that together and you’re in an away venue, as we discovered last week against Cork, things can get quite difficult.
"It was important but if we lost it we weren’t going to get too carried away either. We’re trying to find players as well as we go through this.
"Clare bridged a 38-year gap last year to win the league and it was a magnificent achievement, but we’re way down the ladder at the moment. We’ve got to try and build ourselves up for later on in the year.
"We haven’t been in the top four for a while. That’s got to be our focus. League results in February are quickly forgotten about."
