Pat Flanagan claims Westmeath were far from their best in yesterday's win over Carlow.

The Lake County cruised to an 11-point victory at Mullingar, but their manager believes they are capable of playing a lot better and admitted that they will need to do so against All-Ireland favourites Dublin in the Leinster SFC quarter-final on Saturday week.

"It is great to follow on from our league campaign and get the win. It will give the fellas confidence to go into this game (against Dublin) in two weeks," he said.

"I don't think we played with any sort of intensity whatsoever. But that can happen in the first round when you go a few points ahead. No matter what county or club you come from, the first round is always difficult. We performed relatively well in patches, but there is an awful lot more to come."

The Clara man continued: "We started off pretty well but then we conceded a soft goal. At the end of the day, we needed a bit of a challenge and I suppose it was that until Kieran Martin got the goal before half-time.

"I felt that if we weren't totally committed or totally tuned in today that Carlow could cause a shock.

"Not too many would have given us a chance of coming out of Division 2. That was a huge boost for us mentally, to come out of there, and (the Dublin game) will depend a lot on our mentality and what we can bring to the game.

"If we fear Dublin or stand back off Dublin, they're going to crucify us and we can't afford to do that." Tweet

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