Laois stressed the need for his Laois side to perform for the full 70 minutes in the Joe McDonagh Cup final in a fortnight's time after yesterday's dress rehearsal against Westmeath ended in a draw.

The understrength O'Moore County trailed by five points at half-time, but were much-improved in the second half as they fought back to earn a 1-22 apiece draw in Portlaoise and preserve their unbeaten record.

“There’s a lot of stuff we’ll have to look at. Again, I don’t know whether it was just the occasion or whatever," the former Kilkenny star told Laois Today.

“Look, everyday I think your review has to be that you look at what you did well and the work-ons. There’s always work-ons and you’re always going to have to get your percentages right down for the next day, there’s no doubt about it.

“There was a good trust to that, but it’s nowhere near what it’s going to be in two weeks' time. We were a bit sluggish, I mean it was a match of nothing in a sense, but we certainly didn’t treat it that way and I wouldn’t have been happy with the way we applied ourselves in the first half.

“The ironic thing was when we did actually squeeze the accelerator a little bit we were able to cut them open but at the same time for me it’s all about habits.

“Your habits can never drop, your habits can never be that you go through the motions in a match and in the first half we were doing that."

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