Tom Cribbin has admitted that yesterday's Leinster SFC semi-final was the toughest game of his managerial career.

The Clane man revealed after steering Westmeath into their second successive provincial final that he hadn't slept for two nights, such was his unease at having to plot his native county's downfall.

"I didn't sleep the last two nights, to be honest, with that thought," said the Westmeath manager, who spent most of Saturday on the bike in the Wicklow hills.

"It's different preparing against your own county for a league match because it's not do-or-die. But for championship where you really want to see them go on and you were with them a few years ago when we won the U21 Leinster, I really found it difficult to be honest."

Cribbin was delighted with his side's response to going six points down early in the second half.

"I suppose we were a bit too defensive, didn't attack the game like we should have, when we should have," he continued.

"Then Jimmy Dolan, Ger (Egan), Paul Sharry started stepping up and running at them and made the difference.

"There's an awful lot of young lads brought in this year. It's going to be a huge task [against Dublin], but getting to a Leinster final is the start of it. You have to be able to get back there and see if you learned anything and that was our goal."

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