Laois hurling boss Séamus "Cheddar" Plunkett feels his side eased up far too much in the second half of their 1-17 to 1-14 win over Carlow in the Leinster SHC.
With Westmeath their next opponents in the third round, Plunkett believes his side must raise their game to advance further in the competition.
“I would be a little bit disappointed in the sense that halfway through the second half we tagged on a number of points and probably should have pushed on at that stage – we didn’t,” Plunkett told RTÉ Sport.
“We were in the same situation last week against Antrim, three up, and we simply didn’t defend well enough at all. We defended strong enough today. We were well organised at the back in that sense. We were dominant in the middle third in terms of a platform to push us on.
“Certainly that performance wouldn’t be good enough to take on Westmeath and we have to beat Westmeath. We’ve a lot of work to do.
“We’re under no illusion. I’m also under no illusion about Sunday week against Westmeath. They hammered Antrim today. We’ve a lot of work to do in the next two weeks and we just need to get ourselves ready for that.
“It’s knock-out championship for us. We have to win to stay in the Leinster championship.”
However, Plunkett was also keen to praise the Scallion Eaters for their display, as well the decisions made by their manager Pat English in the second half, saying: “You have to credit Carlow and Pat as well.
“He made some tactical moves which won an awful lot of ball around the middle third and put pressure on our backline.
“We just decided not to concede goals in that period and kept our extra man back, while conceding a bit in the middle third. So, we knew that that was going to come on and we were ready for that.
“It was always going to be tight. Carlow hurlers are very proud hurlers. They’re very proud of their pitch at Dr Cullen Park. They were going to give it an almighty fight.
“We were both in the very same position. Both of us had lost a match. We had to give it everything here to dig out a result and I suppose that’s what happened.
“You have to credit Carlow for fighting for their lives there in terms of trying to win a match.”
