Michael Ryan was a happy man after guiding Westmeath to a hard-earned Leinster SHC first round victory over Carlow.
"I was delighted to win the game," the Waterford man told Midlands 103.
"It was the first round of the round-robin and it's very important to win it. I thought we played some fantastic hurling. We got some good scores, we played really well.
"We've worked hard on our defence over the last couple of weeks, on not conceding goals (Westmeath leaked five in the Division 2A final against Kerry), and only conceded two today. I thought we played really, really well and set ourselves up for next week against Antrim."
The Lake County manager insists he wasn't overly concerned when Carlow poached 1-1 in first half injury-time to level the scoring.
"I wasn't worried at half-time. I felt our fitness was good, our attitude was good, we were hurling well and seemed to have great energy around the pitch.
"They're very important aspects when your mettle is going to be tested."
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