DERMOT McCABE was delighted after Westmeath outclassed Laois in their Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-final.
The Lake County missed out on a place in the last eight a week ago when they fell to a late defeat against Limerick.
But the Leinster outfit rallied to swat aside Laois in Mullingar.
And boss McCabe said: “We were disappointed with last week’s performance and we had two very good training sessions this week.
“We felt the lads were up for it as well as gaining a few lads back from injuries, which was a big help.”
Despite Matthew Whittaker’s shot hitting the bar in the sixth minute, Westmeath led by a point after 13 minutes.
The outstanding Sam McCartan took centre stage midway through the first half with a brace of two-pointers to put the hosts in control.
McCabe’s men finished the first half strongly with Luke Loughlin slotting home a penalty two minutes before the break.
And after the hooter sounded, Westmeath increased their lead when skipper Ronan Wallace finished off a great move by finding the net from point-blank range.
Westmeath extended their advantage to 14 points when Whittaker raised a green flag in the 42nd minute.
The O’Moore County had a purple patch when they scored five points without reply.
Two points from McCartan, either side of a neat score by Kevin O’Sullivan, then killed Laois off.
But Westmeath played on after the full-time hooter and when Loughlin’s effort was blocked, Jonah Kelly got a consolation goal for Laois.
WESTMEATH: C McCormack; J Geoghegan, S Smyth, J Gonoud; J Moran 0-1, R Wallace 1-5, 1tp, S McCartan 0-8, 2tp; B Guerin, S Allen 0-1; M Whittaker 1-1, K O’Sullivan 0-2, N Harte 0-1; L Loughlin 1-2, 1-0pen, 2tpf, S Smith 0-2, 1f, R Forde 0-2, 1f. Subs: D Scahill for Gonoud 44 mins; T Baker for Guerin 46; D McCartan 0-1 for Smith 46; E McCabe for Whittaker 53; S Ormsby for Wallace 60.
LAOIS: K Roche 0-2tpf; B Dempsey, T Collins, L Knowles; P Kirwan 0-2, P O’Sullivan, A McEvoy; S Lacey, D Larkin 0-1; M Barry 0-3f, R Coffey 0-3, 2f, C Heffernan; N Corbet 0-1, K Swayne 0-1, B Byrne 0-1. Subs: M Doran for McEvoy h-t; J Darcy for Knowles 43 mins; C Lee 0-1 for Corbet 45; J Kelly 1-0 for Coffey 55; J Brennan for Heffernan 63.
REFEREE: M McNally (Monaghan
